Interaction between CD40 and the CD40 ligand (CD40L) is critical for the survival and proliferation of B cells during immunopoiesis. However, the role of CD40L in the pathogenesis of malignant lymphomas is ambiguous. Primary mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) cells were cultured in the presence of recombinant human CD40L trimer (huCD40LT), and a significant time- and dose-dependent induction of DNA synthesis was observed in thymidine incorporation assays (n = 7, P <.04). The maximal rate of DNA synthesis was reached at huCD40LT doses of 100 ng/mL and above after 4 days of culture, but a significant increase of DNA synthesis was detected already at doses of 1 ng/mL (P =.03). HuCD40LT never inhibited the basal level of DNA synthesis. These findings established 400 ng/mL of huCD40LT for 4 days as standard conditions in the system. Under these conditions, huCD40LT significantly increased the proportion of cells in the S/G(2)/M phases of the cell cycle in 4 of 7 studied cases, while the fraction of apoptotic cells remained unchanged (n = 7). HuCD40LT also induced expression of CD80/B7-1, CD86/B7-2, and CD95/Fas and up-regulated the expression of HLA-DR (n = 6). With the use of bromodeoxyuridine incorporation in triple-color flow cytometric analysis, it was found that huCD40LT induced cell-cycle progression in light chain-restricted cells only, of which a median of 14% (range, 0.5% to 29%; n = 4) returned to G(0/1) phase DNA content after bromodeoxyuridine incorporation, demonstrating completion of at least one cell cycle in the presence of huCD40LT. Thus, primary clonal MCL cells are activated and can proliferate in the presence of huCD40LT as a single agent.