It has been well know that anti-CD3 could induce activiation of T cells since 1980s. Anti-CD3 canl bind to CD3 and activates TCR complex without antigenic peptide from the antigen presenting cells.
BUT, is it the same mechanism when we used those fluorescence reagents in the flow cytometry? Could T cells expanse in this context?
Some of the anti-CD3 flow antibodies will stimulate/expand T cells to an extent, but it depends on the clone used. Agonisitic anti-CD3 antibodies are routinely bound to beads/plates to expand T cells; however, anti-CD3 antibody alone will typically only expand previously activated T cells. Most groups also add an agonistic anti-CD28 antibody for T cell expansion, and include additional supplements (e.g., IL-2, IL-7, etc.) for optimal expansion.
To answer your questions, if you keep your samples on ice and fix/analyze them shortly after staining with CD3 antibody then you will have negligible T cell expansion.
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