I learned that nearly half of PBMC from whole blood would be T cells.
To avoid T cell enrichment, I wonder if PBMC can be directly used for activation assay, which will be assessed via IL-2, IFNy and CD69 expression etc.
Generally yes, but depending on your stimulant (whether antigen specific or not, and there is also other considerations if you are trying to stimulate a memory response), the time to be able to get something measureable will be different.
This is addressed well in a seminal article by Magda Plebanski and Sally Burtles: In vitro primary responses of human T cells to soluble protein antigens.
Journal of Immunological Methods
Volume 170, Issue 1, 29 March 1994, Pages 15-25
This gives a thorough analysis of the best conditions for T cell activation using whole PBMC or isolated T cells with PBMC as antigen presenting cells. The answer is that you can use whole PBMC but the response depends on the medium you choose, the kinetics of the response that you wish to measure and the ration of T cells to antigen presenting cells.
You can but in order to have more "clean" results it is recommended to use purified T cells.
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