title: Barley low molecular weight β-glucan potently induces maturation of mouse dendritic cells.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Accumulating evidence indicates that non-toxic immunostimulants with strong differentiation/maturation-inducing activity for dendritic cells (DCs) might be useful for preventing or even curing cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Mouse bone marrow (BM) cells were cultured in the presence of various glucans and their differentiation/maturation-inducing activities were compared by measuring cytokines secreted in the culture medium.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Barley-derived β-glucan with an average molecular weight of 2 kDa (BBG-Low) remarkably stimulated the formation of mature DCs from immature mouse DCs. The amount of interleukin-6 produced by sequential treatment of BM cells with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and 10 μg/mL of BBG-Low was approximately 30 times higher than that obtained by a similar sequential treatment using barley β-glucan of 40-70 kDa instead of BBG-Low.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  BBG-Low induces the formation of mature DCs from immature DCs and suggests that BBG-Low will be useful as a potent nontoxic immunostimulator.
authors: Advanced Materials Research and Development Laboratory, Life Sciences Department, ADEKA Corporation, Arakawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Asuka
authors: A
authors: Tanioka
authors: Wei-Wei
authors: WW
authors: An
authors: Takao
authors: T
authors: Kuge
authors: Kazufumi
authors: K
authors: Tsubaki
authors: Kazuyasu
authors: K
authors: Nakaya