Technologies

Additional Information

Other Information

A provisional patent application has been filed on this invention.

Features

Macrophage/dendritic cells and neutrophils orchestrate the inflammatory response, communicating with each other and with T and B cells to induce cell activation and cell proliferation, to recruit more inflammatory cells, to kill the invader, to protect the surrounding tissue, to induce longer-term protective immunity, and to down regulate the response once the microorganism has been eliminated. These same processes can become chronically activated, leading to a variety of human diseases, such as autoimmune disease, multiple sclerosis, liver cirrhosis, arthritis, atherosclerosis, vascular disease, and even cancer. However it is expensive and time-consuming to harvest these differentiated and non-mitotic innate immune cells for academic and industrial research, drug screening, and therapy applications. This invention provides a unique method to generate unlimited numbers of immature progenitors that can differentiate into mature, normal macrophage/dendritic cells or neutrophils when directed to do so. By selecting specific oncoproteins to block differentiation and immortalize progenitor cells of macrophage/dendritic cells and neutrophils. These progenitors proliferate indefinitely, having been expanded in the laboratory continuously. Following oncoprotein inactivation, they stop dividing and mature into cells having the typical morphology of macrophage/dendritic cells and neutrophils. When activated by pro-inflammatory stimuli, these mature cells secrete the normal broad array of pro-inflammatory cytokines.

Related Materials

SD1999-053