Freezing of rat lymphocytes. IV. In vitro and in vivo responses of T-cells.

Rat lymph node lymphocytes have been frozen-thawed with 10% dimethyl sulphoxide as cryoprotectant. The present study shows that these cells respond well in T-cell functional assays, such as stimulation with phytohaemagglutinin, as responder cells in the mixed lymphocyte reaction and in the local graft-versus-host assay. The magnitude of the responses obtained with frozen-thawed cells was some 70-80% of corresponding fresh cells.