Patent ID: 8492146

Claim:
A method for producing a human T cell population which has both cytotoxic and immunosuppressive activities, said method comprising the following steps (1) to (5): (1) fractionating mononuclear cells collected from a human umbilical cord blood into CD14-positive (CD14 + ) cells and CD14-negative (CD14) cells, and then fractionating the CD14-negative (CD14) cells into CD2-positive CD14-negative (CD2′ CD14) cells, and CD2-negative CD14-negative (CD2 − CD14) cells; (2) co-culturing the CD2-positive CD14-negative (CD2 + CD14) cells obtained in step (1) with stromal cells to differentiate the CD2-positive CD14-negative (CD2 + CD14 − ) cells into blast cells which have both cytotoxic and immunosuppressive activities; (3) co-culturing the CD14-positive (CD14 + ) cells obtained in step (1) with fresh stromal cells to differentiate the CD14-positive (CD14 + ) cells into cells capable of promoting the proliferation of the blast cells; (4) adding the blast cells obtained in step (2) to the resulting co-culture of step (3) to proliferate the blast cells obtained in step (2); and (5) co-culturing the blast cells obtained in step (4) with fresh stromal cells in medium supplemented with interleukin-2 (IL-2) to further proliferate, thereby producing a human T cell population which has both cytotoxic and immunosuppressive activities.