[Dendritic cells: a complex cellular system].

Dendritic cells (DC) are the most potent antigen-presenting cells. Thus, ex vivo antigen-pulsed DC are a potentially powerful tool to induce in vivo immunity against tumor-associated or viral antigens. Therefore, culture methods to generate high numbers of DC from bone marrow or blood CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells have recently been developed. These methods, which use different combinations of growth factor--mainly granulocyte/macrophage...