A comparative study of the generation of dendritic cells from mobilized peripheral blood progenitor cells of patients undergoing high-dose chemotherapy.

Immunization with ex vivo-generated, tumor antigen-loaded dendritic cells (DC) has been proposed as a strategy for reducing relapses following high-dose chemotherapy, but the ideal time and method for obtaining DC progenitors are unknown. We determined the percentage yield, phenotype, and function of DC generated over 7 days in GM-CSF and IL-4-supplemented, serum-free medium from PBMC obtained from breast cancer and lymphoma patients at the time of their initial presentation for transplant, cytokine or chemotherapy plus cytokine-mobilized leukapheresis, and following granulocyte recovery from high-dose chemotherapy. The median yield of large dendritic-like cells as a percentage of the starting number of PBMC was similar for all the mobilization strategies (11.6%-13.8%) studied and at all time points (9.9%-12.7%), except the yield was lower from the pretherapy, unmobilized peripheral blood (6.3%). The phenotype of the generated cells was similar for the various mobilization procedures, and there were no differences in allostimulatory function of the DC from any of the groups. We conclude that functional DC may be generated equally well from mobilized PBPC and PBPC obtained after high-dose chemotherapy.