Dendritic Cells activated by HCV pseudo particles induce specific immune response

In hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection dendritic cells (DCs) are a key player in immune response and modulation. Therefore they are considered a promising tool for viral defence. After 8 day maturation with GMCS-F and IL–4 bone-marrow derived DCs from BALB/c mice were loaded and therefore activated by hepatitis C virus pseudo particles (HCVpp). HCVpp consists of the two envelope proteins E1 and E2 (in our case genotype 1b), covering a non-HCV core structure. Mice were vaccinated two times by intra peritoneal injection of the activated DCs. After four weeks mice were sacrificed and ELISPOT and ELISA assays were per…