Large scale expansion of Vγ9Vδ2 T lymphocytes from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells after a positive selection using MACS “TCR γ/δ + T cell isolation kit”

Interest in γ9δ2 T cells has increased greatly in the past decade. While several protocols allowed the amplification of a large proportion of these cells in vitro, the purity of the final preparation is usually heterogeneous between different donors. Functional studies of this population are often controversial due to the presence of other populations such as NK cells which share a wide range of characteristics. Here, the γ9δ2 T cells labelled-fraction is purified and mixed with the irradiated unlabelled fraction followed by a single stimulation with phosphoantigen, in turn followed by a classical step of amplification in the presence of interleukin 2. In this study, we describe a straightforward protocol to amplify pure populations of γ9δ2 T cells which could be useful in fundamental research or in the development of a new generation of γδ cell therapy protocol.