This article is part of the supplement: Association for Immunotherapy of Cancer: Cancer Immunotherapy – 2nd Annual Meeting .

Oral presentation

Large scale in vitro expansion of polyclonal human CD4⁺CD25^high regulatory T cells

P Hoffmann¹ , R Eder¹, LA Kunz-Schughart², R Andreesen¹ and M Edinger¹

¹  Department of Hematology & Oncology, University Hospital Regensburg, 93053 Regensburg, Germany

²  Institute of Pathology, University HospitalRegensburg, 93053 Regensburg, Germany

author email corresponding author email

from Association for Immunotherapy of Cancer: Cancer Immunotherapy – 2^nd Annual Meeting
Mainz, Germany. 6–7 May 2004

Cancer Cell International 2004, 4(Suppl 1):S11doi:10.1186/1475-2867-4-S1-S11

The electronic version of this abstract is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.cancerci.com/content/4/S1/S11

Received:	28 April 2004
Published:	1 July 2004

Oral presentation

CD4⁺CD25⁺ regulatory T (T_reg) cells are pivotal for the maintenance of self-tolerance and their adoptive transfer protects from autoimmune diseases and pathogenic alloresponses after solid organ or bone marrow transplantation in murine model systems. In vitro, human CD4⁺CD25⁺ T_reg cells display similar phenotypic and functional characteristics as murine CD4⁺CD25⁺ T_reg cells, namely hyporesponsiveness to TCR stimulation and suppression of CD25^- T cells. Thus far, the detailed characterization and potential clinical application of human CD4⁺CD25⁺ T_reg cells was hampered by their paucity in peripheral blood and the lack of appropriate expansion protocols. Here we describe the up to 40,000-fold expansion of highly purified human CD4⁺CD25^high T cells in vitro through the use of artificial APC for repeated stimulation via CD3 and CD28 in the presence of high dose IL-2. Expanded CD4⁺CD25^high T cells were polyclonal, maintained their phenotype, exceeded the suppressive activity of freshly isolated CD4⁺CD25^high T cells and showed characteristics of central memory T cells. The ability to rapidly expand human CD4⁺CD25^high T_reg cells large scale will not only facilitate their further exploration but also accelerate their potential clinical application in T cell-mediated diseases and transplantation medicine.

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