Fig. 5.

Increase in the ex vivo PBMC response to stimulation with homeostatic cytokines after DC vaccination. PBMCs were harvested before the first (prevaccination) and after the third vaccination (postvaccination) with autologous, antigen-loaded, mature CD83⁺ moDCs. PBMCs were stimulated with the vaccine control antigen KLH (2 μg/ml), IL-7, IL-15 or a combination of IL-7 and IL-15. Proliferative responses were assessed as [³H] thymidine incorporation. Cytokine contents in culture supernatants were determined using a Th1/Th2 cytokine bead array (CBA) and flow cytometry. Results are mean values of triplicate measurements ± SD. One patient representative of nine