Control of cloning of normal human T lymphocytes by transferrin, albumin and different lectins

Normal human T-lymphocytes can be induced to form colonies with a high cloning efficiency by seeding the cells directly in agar with normal human plasma and the lectins concanavalin A, phytohaemagglutinin, or pokeweed mitogen. The requirement for human plasma can be substituted, to different degrees with different lectins, by adding transferrin and albumin to foetal calf serum. This provides a useful system for identifying specific deficiencies in the requirements for normal T-lymphocyte colony formation.