Abstract: Objective: To investigate the effects of Semen Plantaginis polysaccharides on the phenotypic and endocytosis of murine dendritic cells. Methods: Imature BMDCs were generated in vitro from the murine bone marrow cells in the presence of rmGM-CSF and rmIL-4, while mature DCs were obtained by cultivation of immature DCs with LPS or polysaccharides. We analyzed the morphological characterization under microscopy, analyzed the cell surface marker of CD11c and MHC II and uptake FITC-dextran by flow cytometric. Results: Treatment with polysaccharides for 40h resulated in the enhanced cell-surface expression of CD11c and MHC II on DCs, and at the the concentration (0～50μg/ml) was in a does-dependent up-regulation the percentage of CD11c and MHC II double positive DCs. And the endocytosis was decrease compared with untreated. Especially, PS3 had a significant effect that the percentage of double-stained cells (PE-CD11c×FITC-dextran) was 11.53%. Conclusions: The Semen Plantaginis polysaccharides could up-regulation the percentage of CD11 and MHC II double positive DCs, and decresae the endocytosis, which indicated that the polysaccharides could induce maturation of murined endritic cells.

Key words: Semen Plantaginis polysaccharides, dendritic cells, maturation, phenotypic, endocytosis