Patent ID: 7192769

Claim:
A method for in vitro production of lymphoid tissue-specific cells, comprising: introducing an amount of hematopoietic progenitor cells, an amount of antigen presenting cells, and an amount of lymphoreticular stromal cells, into a porous, solid matrix having interconnected pores of a pore size sufficient to permit the hematopoietic progenitor cells, the antigen presenting cells, and the lymphoreticular stromal cells to grow throughout the matrix, wherein the lymphoreticular stromal cells are derived from at least one lymphoid soft tissue selected from the group consisting of spleen, liver, lymph node, skin, tonsil and Peyer's patches, and combinations thereof, and the amount of the lymphoreticular stromal cells is sufficient to support the growth and differentiation of the hematopoietic progenitor cells, and co-culturing the hematopoietic progenitor cells, antigen presenting cells, and lymphoreticular stromal cells and thereby producing the lymphoid tissue-specific cells, wherein the lymphoid tissue-specific cells are T-cells.