Developing immunopotentiators to improve vaccine efficacy in ruminants is an important goal. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) have been shown to act as adjuvant when co-administrated with peptides antigens or given as fusion proteins. In this study, we have investigated the role of Trypanosoma congolense HSP-70 (Tcong-HSP-70) on the maturation of murine dendritic cells (DCs) generated from bone marrow precursor cells. The results obtained showed that Tcong-HSP-70 induced murine DC maturation as determined by increased levels of surface markers (CD40, CD86 and MHC II) as well as proliferation of allogeneic splenocytes. DCs exposed to Tcong-HSP-70 were characterized by strong expression of TNF[alpha] and IL-12p70 and moderate expression of IL-10. Similar study, now underway, on bovine monocyte-derived DCs demonstrated the ability of Tcong-HSP-70 to also trigger bovine Mo-DC maturation. This finding thus suggests that Tcong-HSP-70 can act as a potent Th1 adjuvant for antigen delivery.