Fig. 4.

Polyclonal expansion of primary human T cells. (a) Schematic of polyclonal T cell expansion stimulated by IL-2/Ab/DC@MF. (b) Representative bright-field microscopy images of primary human T cells cultured with Dynabead (a cell-to-bead ratio of 1:1), bare MF, DC@MF, Ab/DC@MF or IL-2/Ab/DC@MF (scale bar, 100 μm). *indicates T cell culture without additional IL-2 supplements in culture media. (c) T cell cluster size and the number of T cell clusters on day 3 of expansion. (d–g) T cell expansion using Dynabead, bare MF, DC@MF, Ab/DC@MF, or IL-2/Ab/DC@MF for 14 days. (d) Expansion profiles. (e) Fold expansion at day 7 and day 14. (f) CD8-to-CD4 ratio and (g) co-expression of PD-1 and LAG-3 among CD3⁺ cells expanded by Dynabead or MFs. (h) T cell isolation process using a density gradient centrifugation method (scale bar, 100 μm). T cells were separated from MFs due to the density difference. (i) Scatter profiles for expanded T cells with MFs before and after separation. SCC, side scatter; FSC, forward scatter. Data in (c–g) represent mean ± s.d of n = 3 and are representative of at least two independent experiments. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, and ****p < 0.0001; two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's post hoc tests.