Tissue samples were maintained in cold saline and brought to the laboratory within 2–4 h of procurement from the donor. Samples were rapidly processed using enzymatic and mechanical digestion to obtain lymphocyte populations with high viability as described in detail (Sathaliyawala et al., 2013 (link); Thome et al., 2014 (link), 2016 (link)). Lymphocytes were isolated from blood using lymphocyte separation media (CellGro; CellGenix) and ACK lysis buffer as previously described (Sathaliyawala et al., 2013 (link)). Lymphocytes were either analyzed immediately or cryopreserved for future analysis.