Real-time quantitative PCR analysis of human dendritic cells

Human CD14 positive monocytes were purified from healthy volunteers' blood and were differentiated to immature dendritic cells in vitro by culturing for five days in the presence of interleukin-4 (IL-4 100 ng/ml) and GM-CSF (75 ng/ml). Immature dendritic cells were activated three different ways for 24 hours: 1. Double-stranded DNA poly(dA:dT) (2.5 μg/ml) complexed with LyoVec transfection reagent. 2. LPS (500 ng/ml) 3. Inflammatory cocktail containing 10 ng/ml TNF, 5 ng/ml IL-1β, 20 ng/ml IL-6, 75 ng/ml GM-CSF and 1 μg/ml PGE2. We used SA Biosciences Antigen Presenting and Toll-like Receptor Pathway PCR Arrays to quantitate gene expression of immunologically relevant genes from the immature and the differently activated cells. Monocytes from three donors were used and treated separately as indicated in the summary. Equal amount total RNA from each donor was pooled prior to gene expression analysis.