Transduction of Human T Cell Subsets with Lentivirus

Lentivirus-mediated gene transfer is an efficient method to introduce a variety of transgenes to human T cells. Here we describe a protocol to transduce human CD4⁺, CD8⁺, or CD4⁺ regulatory T cells. To illustrate the method, we use transduction with lentivirus encoding an HLA-A2-specific chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and a transduction marker as an example. Methods to isolate, transduce, purify, and expand CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells as well as regulatory T cells are provided. We also describe how to carry out cytotoxicity or suppression assays to assess the function of the resulting CAR T cell or CAR regulatory T cells, respectively.