Patent ID: 8562974

Claim:
A method of cellular therapy for the inhibitory or therapeutic treatment of type I diabetes mellitus, allogeneic solid organ rejection or graft versus host disease, or the therapeutic treatment of other autoimmune diseases, comprising the steps of: (a) incubating CD4 + T cells obtained from a human or animal with: (i) a cytokine, (ii) a compound selected from the group consisting of rapamycin, rapamycin 42-ester with 3-hydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)-2-methylpropionic acid, and 42-0-(2-hydroxy)ethyl rapamycin, and (iii) anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 antibodies or an antigen in the presence of antigen presenting cells; (b) isolating the resultant population of CD4 + CD25 + T regulatory (Tr) cells; and (c) introducing into a patient the CD4 + CD25 + Tr cells; wherein the only cytokine used to incubate the CD4 + T cells prior to the isolating step (b) consists of IL-2.