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.
Materials and 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.
Conclusion: BBG-Low induces the formation of mature DCs from immature DCs and suggests that BBG-Low will be useful as a potent nontoxic immunostimulator.