Culture and identification of chicken bone marrow-derived dendritic cells in vitro

To create a method for cultivation of chicken bone marrow-derived dendritic cells(DC)in vitro,chicken bone marrow cells were isolated and cultured in the medium with recombinant chicken interleukin(rIL-4)and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor(rGM-CSF)in vitro.Then the DC was preliminarily identified by morphologic,phenotypic and functional assays in vitro.Results:after 7 days of culture,under the inverted microscope,there were many dendrite-like processes on the surface of the cultured cells and the cells displayed the typical morphology of DC.The expressions of CD11c and MHC Ⅱ on the surface of the cultured cell were 69.3% and 63.0%.The CD40 and CD86 expressions on the surface of DC which were stimulated by lipopolysaccharide(LPS)or CpG-ODN for 24 hours were up-regulated,and the DC stimulated by LPS or CpG-ODN could significantly induce the proliferation of allogenic mixed T lymphocytes.Conclusion:a large quantity of chicken bone marrow-derived DC with higher purity could be obtained in vitro by this way used in our study,and the cultured cells display the typical biological characteristics of DC in vivo.