Three-dimensional cell culture of chimeric antigen receptor T cells originated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells towards cellular therapies.

With the objective of improving the ex vivo production of therapeutic chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, we explored the addition of three-dimensional (3D) polystyrene scaffolds to standard suspension cell cultures. We aimed to mimic the structural support given by the lymph nodes during in vivo lymphocyte expansion. We observed an increase in cell proliferation compared with standard suspension systems as well as an enhanced cytotoxicity toward cancer cells. Moreover, we directly obtained the CAR T cells from peripheral blood mononuclear cells, thus minimizing the ex vivo manipulation of the therapeutic cells and opening the way to synergies among different cell populations. We propose the use of commercially available 3D polystyrene systems to improve the current immune cell cultures and resulting cell products for emerging cellular (immuno)therapies.