Paracoccidioides brasiliensis causes a chronic granulomatous mycosis, prevalent in South America, and cell-mediated immunity represents the principal mode of protection against this fungal infection. We investigated the response of naive cord blood T cells to P. brasiliensis lysates. Our results show: (1) P. brasiliensis stimulates T-cell expansion, interleukin-2 (IL-2) production and differentiation into cytotoxic T cells; (2) T-cell stimulation depends on P. brasiliensis processing and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II expression; (3) the responsive T-cell population expresses alpha beta T-cell receptors (TCR) with different V beta gene products, CD4 and CD45RO; (4) the P. brasiliensis components involved in T-cell expansion primarily reside in a high molecular weight (100,000 MW) and a low molecular weight (< 1000 MW) protein fraction. These results indicate that protein antigens of P. brasiliensis stimulate cord blood CD4 alpha beta T cells, independent from in vivo presensitization, and thus question direct correlation of positive in vitro responses with protective immunity in vivo.