Aim: To clarify the effect of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) on the radio of two peripheral blood dendritic cell(DC) subsets in-vivo.
Methods: Various doses (0, 5, 10 and 15 microg) of G-CSF were subcutaneosly injected respectively into BALB/c mice, once each day, for 6 days running. Six days later, DCs were separated from peripheral blood. Then the flow cytometry was used to detect the radio of DC1 and DC2 (CD11c(+) CD8a(-) and CD11c(+) CD8a(+)), and to calculate their absolute numbers.
Results: After stimulation with varying doses of G-CSF for 6 days, the absolute number of DC2s increased from 9.6x10(6)/L to 55.1x10(6)/L (P<0.01), while that of DC1s had no notably variation, so the ratio of DC1 and DC2 decreases from 4.2+/-1.1 to 0.7+/-0.3 (P<0.01).
Conclusion: G-CSF can increase the absolute number of peripheral blood DC2s, but has no influence on peripheral blood DC1 number, thus inversing the ratio of DC1/DC2 in-vivo.