Human Plasma-like Medium Improves T Lymphocyte Activation
Michael A. Leney-Greene,
Arun K. Boddapati,
Helen C. Su,
Jason R. Cantor,
Michael J. Lenardo
Affiliations
Michael A. Leney-Greene
Molecular Development of the Immune System Section, Laboratory of Immune System Biology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA; Immunology Graduate Group, Biomedical Graduate Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
Arun K. Boddapati
NIAID Collaborative Bioinformatics Resource (NCBR), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA; Advanced Biomedical Computational Science, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD, USA
Helen C. Su
Immunology Graduate Group, Biomedical Graduate Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Human Immunological Diseases Section, Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
Jason R. Cantor
Morgridge Institute for Research, 330 North Orchard Street, Madison, WI 53715, USA; Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA; Carbone Cancer Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 600 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53705, USA
Michael J. Lenardo
Molecular Development of the Immune System Section, Laboratory of Immune System Biology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA; Immunology Graduate Group, Biomedical Graduate Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Corresponding author
Summary: T lymphocytes are critical for effective immunity, and the ability to study their behavior in vitro can facilitate major insights into their development, function, and fate. However, the composition of human plasma differs from conventional media, and we hypothesized that such differences could impact immune cell physiology. Here, we showed that relative to the medium typically used to culture lymphocytes (RPMI), a physiologic medium (human plasma-like medium; HPLM) induced markedly different transcriptional responses in human primary T cells and in addition, improved their activation upon antigen stimulation. We found that this medium-dependent effect on T cell activation is linked to Ca2+, which is six-fold higher in HPLM than in RPMI. Thus, a medium that more closely resembles human plasma has striking effects on T cell biology, further demonstrates that medium composition can profoundly affect experimental results, and broadly suggests that physiologic media may offer a valuable way to study cultured immune cells. : Biological Sciences; Immunology; Immunological Methods Subject Areas: Biological Sciences, Immunology, Immunological Methods
