Transcriptomes of monocyte-derived DCs stimulated with various compounds

Little is known about the early transcriptional events in innate immune signaling in immature and tolerogenic monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs), the professional antigen-presenting cells of our immune system. TLR ligands usually induce a proinflammatory transcriptional response, whereas IL10 and/or dexamethasone induce a more tolerogenic phenotype. We used Affymetrix microarrays to obtain detailed information underlying pro- and anti-inflammatory transcriptional responsesand transcriptional networks in DCs A pilot experiment was performed in which monocyte-derived DCs were either treated with TLR4 ligand LPS, or IL10 and dexamethason. Furthermore, IL10/dexamethason treated cells were also stimulated with LPS for an additional 6 hr. All samples were then subjected to global gene expression analysis using Affymetrix technology.