Cell Culture 

Background information
Treg cells are a subset of T cells that have the ability to suppress harmful immunological reactions to self or foreign antigens. This function of Treg cells can be analyzed by a suppression assay. For this purpose, Treg cells and responder T cells are cocultured in different ratios in the presence of an optimized polyclonal stimulus, the Treg Suppression Inspector, while the proliferative response is measured.
The Treg Suppression Inspector is an optimized T cell stimulation reagent for a Treg suppression assay, which is based on Anti-Biotin MACSiBead™ Particles that are loaded with biotinylated CD2, CD3, and CD28 antibodies.
Activation of responder T cells (CD4+ CD25- or CD4+ T cells) with MACSiBead™ Particles leads to proliferation, whereas Treg cells in the presence of the stimulus are not activated. Coculture of responder T cells, MACSiBead™ Particles and Treg cells results in reduced proliferation of responder T cells due to suppression by Treg cells.