Comparison of human plasmacytoid dendritic cells and monocyte-derived dendritic cells

Transcriptome analysis was conducted to investigate the gene expression profiles of pDCs using bulk RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy donors (n=3) were stained with lineage markers (CD3, CD14, CD16, CD19, and CD56), and pDCs were identified via flow cytometry (fluorescence-activated cell sorting [FACS]) based on the co-expression of IL-3R (CD123) and BDCA-2 (CD303). mDCs were identified using CD11c and sorted from the same PBMC donor as a control. After sorting, mRNA was extracted from the sorted cells, including mDCs and pDCs. The whole transcriptome profile was analyzed via RNA-seq.