Descotes J, Verdier F, Brouland J P, Patriarca C
Laboratoire d'Immunotoxicologie Fondamentale et Clinique, INSERM U80, Lyon, France.
Dev Biol Stand. 1992;77:111-4.
The popliteal lymph node (PLN) assay was proposed to study a panel of drug-induced clinical manifestations, e.g. lupus syndrome, serum sickness-like disease, lymphadenopathy, scleroderma-like reaction, the mechanism of which was suggested as being similar to a graft-versus-host (GvH) reaction, hence the term GvH-like reaction. This assay can readily be performed in either the mouse or rat. The commonest endpoint is PLN weight, but cellularity and lymphocyte-phenotype analysis can also be determined. Experiments so far show that most drugs and chemicals known to induce such complications in man can be detected by the PLN assay and false-positive responses are extremely few. Interestingly, preliminary results indicate that cimetidine, an immuno-enhancing agent, can increase the response to phenytoin, a positive reference compound in the PLN assay. Thus, in addition to predicting those drugs with the capacity to induce GvH-like reactions and investigating the mechanism involved, the PLN assay may also prove useful in the pre-clinical assessment of immunomodulating agents.
腘淋巴结（PLN）试验被用于研究一系列药物诱导的临床表现，例如狼疮综合征、血清病样疾病、淋巴结病、硬皮病样反应，其机制被认为类似于移植物抗宿主（GvH）反应，因此称为GvH样反应。该试验在小鼠或大鼠中都很容易进行。最常见的终点是PLN重量，但也可以测定细胞数量和淋巴细胞表型分析。迄今为止的实验表明，大多数已知会在人体中引发此类并发症的药物和化学物质都可以通过PLN试验检测到，假阳性反应极少。有趣的是，初步结果表明，免疫增强剂西咪替丁可以增强对苯妥英的反应，苯妥英是PLN试验中的阳性对照化合物。因此，除了预测那些具有诱导GvH样反应能力的药物并研究其中涉及的机制外，PLN试验在免疫调节剂的临床前评估中可能也很有用。
