Clinical grade isolation of regulatory T cells from G-CSF mobilized peripheral blood improves with initial depletion of monocytes.

Clinical isolation of circulating CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells (Tregs) from peripheral blood mononuclear cells is usually performed by CD4(+) cell negative selection followed by CD25(+) cell positive selection. Although G-CSF mobilized peripheral blood (G-PBSC) contains a high number of Tregs, a high number of monocytes in G-PBSC limits Treg isolation. Using a small scale device (MidiMACS, Miltenyi) we initially demonstrated that an initial depletion of monocytes would be necessary to obtaina separation of CD4(+)CD25(+)FoxP3(+)CD127(-) cells from G-PBSC (G-Tregs) with a consistent purity >70% and inhibitory activity of T cell alloreactivity in-vitro. We then validated the same approach in a clinical scale setting by separating G-Tregs with clinically available antibodies to perform a CD8(+)CD19(+)CD14(+) cell depletion followed by CD25(+) cell selection (2-step process) or by adding an initial CD14(+) cell depletion (3-step process) using a CliniMACS column. The 3-step approach resulted in a better purity (81±12% vs. 35±33%) and yield (66% vs. 39%). Clinically isolated G-Tregs were also FoxP3(+)CD127(dim) and functionally suppressive in-vitro. Our findings suggest that a better and more consistent purity of Tregs can be achieved from G-PBSC by an initial single depletion of monocytes prior to selection of CD4(+)CD25(+) cells.