Cryopreservation of monocytes is superior to cryopreservation of immature or semi-mature dendritic cells for dendritic cell-based immunotherapy.

Cryopreservation of immature or mature dendritic cells (DC) has been proposed as a suitable method to gain large numbers of DC for immunotherapeutic trials against cancer. However, clinical studies using cryopreserved DC have demonstrated only limited success so far. The aim of this study was to investigate whether cryopreservation of monocytes elicits more potent DC and whether these DC are comparable to freshly generated DC preparations. Monocytes, either separated immunomagnetically or by means of leukapheresis and elutriation, were differentiated into DC and cryopreserved at various developmental stages. DC preparations were analyzed regarding recovery, viability, phenotype, and functional properties. In contrast to DC frozen at their immature or semi-mature state, generation of DC from cryopreserved monocytes elicited viability values comparable with freshly generated DC. Furthermore, using frozen monocytes for DC differentiation revealed improved expression of DC surface markers and interleukin-12p70 secretion as compared with DC generated from frozen immature or frozen semi-mature DC. Impaired phenotypical appearance of the latter DC variants was further substantiated by functional analysis. T-cells cocultured with these DC showed decreased expression of interferon-gamma and granzyme B, and lowered proliferation when compared with T-cells cocultured with DC generated from frozen monocytes or DC generated from freshly isolated monocytes. Induction of regulatory T-cell populations was negligible among all investigated DC preparations. These findings may further improve DC-based immunotherapeutical protocols. Cryopreservation of unchallenged monocytes enables targeted therapy by loading DC with varying antigenic compositions in case of tumor escape during treatment.