Method for determining potency of antigenic presenting cell based vaccines

In a method for activating antigen presenting cell (APC) precursors by incubating the precursors ex vivo with an agent effective to induce the development of the APC precursors to antigen presenting cells (APC's) characterized by an ability to stimulate a therapeutic T cell response in vivo, an improvement for identifying that cell induction has occurred at a therapeutically effective level, comprising:

• a) prior to activating the APC precursors, measuring the mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of a surface marker associated with APC precursors, and selected from the group consisting of CD54, CD1a, CD11b, CD11c, CD40, CD80, CD83, CD86, CD123, HLA class I, HLA class II and combinations thereof;
• b) following the induction, measuring the MFI of the same surface marker(s) in activated APC's;
• and
• c) if the measured MFI of the surface marker(s) following activation increases a statistically significant amount above the level measured prior to activation, identifying the cells as having been induced to the desired therapeutically effective level.