Characterization of conventional dendritic cell populations in preclinical tumor models using flow cytometry.

Tumor infiltration of conventional dendritic cells has been shown to be essential for triggering efficient antitumor immune responses. These findings have generated an increasing demand for reliable methods to accurately identify and quantify specific DC-subpopulations, both in immune monitoring of clinical trial samples as well as in preclinical mouse tumor models. Here, we describe a flow cytometric approach to assess percentages and absolute counts of conventional dendritic cells in solid mouse tumors.