Dendritic cells (DCs) are rare but ubiquitous antigen-presenting cells situated in lymphoid
and nonlymphoid organs throughout the body. The study of DCs located in the liver has
been restricted by their relative scarcity and the difficulty of their isolation. Because
granulocyte-macrophage colony–stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is a critical growth factor for
DCs invitro, we postulated that it would expand hepatic DCs in vivo. We found that
adenoviral-mediated GM-CSF overexpression in normal mice increased the number of liver …