Antibody dependent cell mediated cytotoxicity against anti-D sensitized human erythrocytes. Influence of various effector cells and enzyme treatment of the target cells.

Antibody dependent cell mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) was measured against anti-D sensitized erythrocytes using various mononuclear cell populations from peripheral blood in a chromium release assay. Adherent effector cells gave stronger cytotoxicity than unseparated and non-adherent cells, and were less dependent on pretreatment of the target cells with papain. However, close correlations were found between the cytotoxicity obtained with the various effector cell populations, indicating that either of them might be used for the purpose of establishing in vitro methods to determine the clinical significance of erythrocyte antibodies. The optimal choice of effector cells is discussed.