Description
CD34+ hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells were isolated from human cord blood and amplified in vitro for 10-14 days in serum-free medium with specific cytokines (Ju et al., Eur. J. Cell Biol. 82, 75-86, 2003; Hacker et al., Nat. Immunol. 4, 380-386, 2003). Cultured progenitor cells were induced to differentiate into DC in RPMI medium supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum, 2 mM L-glutamine, 0.1 microM Beta-mercaptoethanol, 100 U/ml penicillin and streptomycin (GIBCO-BRL) and 500 U/ml GM-CSF, 500 U/ml IL-4 for 6 days with or without 10 ng/ml TGF-beta1 as indicated (0.5x10E6 cells/ml). Every 2 days growth factors were added and cells were maintained at 0.5x10E6 cells/ml cell density. RNA was prepared and subjected to microarray analysis.