Flow cytometric, whole blood dendritic cell immune function assay
AssigneeBecton, Dickinson and Company
InventorsKerstin Willmann, John F. Dunne
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention provides a flow cytometric method for measuring dendritic cell function in whole blood, comprising: (a) contacting a whole blood sample with a dendritic cell activator; (b) adding to the sample a plurality of dendritic cell-distinguishing antibodies and at least one cytokine-specific antibody; and then (c) flow cytometrically assaying the sample for the binding of the cytokine-specific antibody by at least one distinguishable DC subset. Other assays are presented in which DC activation markers are assessed.
Claims15
A flow cytometric method for measuring dendritic cell function in whole blood, comprising:
- (a) contacting a whole blood sample with a dendritic cell activator;
- (b) adding to said sample a plurality of dendritic cell-distinguishing antibodies, a dendritic cell subsetting antibody that is an antibody specific for CD11c or an antibody specific for CD123, and at least one antibody specific for a dendritic cell surface marker indicative of activation, wherein said antibodies are fluorophore-conjugated;
- (c) lysing red blood cells in said sample;
- and then
- (d) flow cytometrically assaying said sample for binding of said antibody specific for said dendritic cell surface activation marker by dendritic cells of a dendritic cell subset, wherein the pattern of binding of the dendritic cell-distinguishing antibodies and the dendritic cell subsetting antibody identifies dendritic cells of the dendritic cell subset, and the level of binding of the antibody specific for a dendritic cell surface marker provides a measure of dendritic cell function.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.