Impact of cell culture media on the expansion efficiency and T-cell receptor Vbeta (TRBV) repertoire of in vitro expanded T cells using feeder cells

Background: The effects of different cell culture media on expansion efficiency and alterations in T-cell receptor V beta (TRBV) expression of in vitro expanded lymphocytes are not well established. Material/Methods: Low numbers of CD3 + T cells from peripheral blood lympliocytes of healthy donors were subjected to polyclonal in vitro expansion in the presence of autologous CD3-depleted mononuclear cells as feeder cells (FCs) and their numbers and TRBV expressions were compared in media containing human (HS-RPMI) or fetal bovine serum (FBS-RPMI), Panserin TM 413,or X-Vivo 15 TM designed for lymphocyte culture. Results: During three courses of restimulation within 28 days with CD3-antibody (OKT-3), IL-2, and initial CD3 + , T-cell: FC ratios of 1:50 lowered to 1:5 and T cells expanded more than 1,000-fold in the media containing complete sera. Loss of cluster formation, associated with expansion failure, was only observed in cultures using synthetic media and resulted in only about 70-fold expansion. Whereas TRVB expression as determined by real-lime PCR was substantially altered after 14 days of culture in X-Vivo 15 TM , at dav 28 only T cells from long-term culture in HS-RPMI presented the initial TRBV composition. Conclusions: Culture media have substantial impact on in vitro T-cell expansion. In the presence of FCs, medium containing human serum is superior to synthetic media and FBS-RPMI for long-term culture regarding T-cell number and TRBV repertoire. In contrast, the synthetic media Panserin413 and XVivo15 show lower expansion efficiency and reproducibility and, as RPMI1640+10%FBS, can contribute to overstimulation of certain TRBVs at advanced culture time points.