Concanavalin A and Phytohaemagglutinin Stimulated Lymphoproliferative Responses in Cord Blood Mononuclear Cells

Abstract

Experimental and clinical evidences have demonstrated that umbilical cord blood is an efficient source of transplantable haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. After transplantation, initial exposure to alloantigen-presenting cells (allo-APC) induced lymphoproliferative responses in cord blood T cells. However, this response is lower than that by adult T cells. The aim of this study was to investigate and compare lymphoprolifertive responses of cord blood mononuclear cells (CBMC) and adult peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). CBMC and PBMC immunoproliferative responses were measured by MTT assay after stimulation of respective primary culture cells with phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) or Concanavalin A (Con A) for 76 hours. Lymphoproliferative response of CBMC was significantly lower compared to that of PBMC.