| abstract |
The invention relates to an in vitro method for obtaining a Tr1 cell population of food-specific antigen or auto-antigen from a population of leukocytes or PBMC, comprising stimulating the PBMC or leukocyte population with the food antigen or autoantigen, Tr1 cell-specific food or auto-antigen-specific cells from the stimulated cell population. Preferably, the PBMC or leukocyte population is again stimulated at least once with the same antigen after step (1), in the presence of IL-2 and at least one interleukin selected from the group consisting of IL-4 and IL-13. The in vitro method may further comprise a third step of expanding the recovered Tr1 population of antigen-specific cells, advantageously by contacting them with feeder cells capable of expressing the factors necessary for such expansion. Preferably, the feeder cells are recombinant insect feeder cells. |