Hicks M J, Hagaman R M, Barbee R A
Am J Clin Pathol. 1986 Jun;85(6):704-9. doi: 10.1093/ajcp/85.6.704.
Optimum methodologic variables for assessing cellular immunity by in vitro lymphocyte transformation (LT) were determined using spherulin and coccidioidin antigens. This study was conducted in an area endemic for coccidioidomycosis and included healthy, coccidioidomycosis skin test positive (STP) and negative (STN) subjects, and patients with mild, acute disease. The authors examined the relationship between coccidioidin (1:100) and spherulin (low dose) skin test reactivity and lymphocyte transformation (LT) responses to the same antigens. Counts per minute (CPM) and stimulation index (SI) as methods of expressing tritiated thymidine uptake were compared. The LT assays were set up in duplicate test systems using autologous and homologous plasma. Both antigens differentiated between STP and STN groups (P less than or equal to 0.001-0.004), but values obtained with spherulin-induced LT were greater than those using coccidioidin (P less than 0.001). Values in CPM and SI were greater in the spherulin-induced LT assay using autologous compared with AB plasma. Specifically, for detecting cellular immunity to coccidioidomycosis, the combination of spherulin-induced LT using autologous plasma and expressing the results in CPM gave the best discrimination between STP and STN subjects. Based on epidemiologic data, the latter method also appeared more sensitive than the skin test in detecting cellular immunity to coccidioidomycosis. In general, these data illustrate the variable effectiveness of different antigens for inducing LT responses and further show how different plasma sources affect the LT response. Finally, these data suggest that lymphocyte blast transformation results expressed as CPM may give more consistent values and better discrimination between immune and nonimmune subjects than results expressed as stimulation indices.
利用球孢子菌素和粗球孢子菌素抗原确定了通过体外淋巴细胞转化（LT）评估细胞免疫的最佳方法学变量。本研究在球孢子菌病的地方性流行区域开展，纳入了健康受试者、球孢子菌病皮肤试验阳性（STP）和阴性（STN）的受试者以及轻度急性病患者。作者研究了粗球孢子菌素（1:100）和球孢子菌素（低剂量）皮肤试验反应性与对相同抗原的淋巴细胞转化（LT）反应之间的关系。比较了以每分钟计数（CPM）和刺激指数（SI）作为表达氚化胸腺嘧啶摄取的方法。LT测定在使用自体和同源血浆的双份测试系统中进行设置。两种抗原均能区分STP组和STN组（P≤0.001 - 0.004），但球孢子菌素诱导的LT所获得的值大于使用粗球孢子菌素的值（P＜0.001）。与AB血浆相比，在使用自体血浆的球孢子菌素诱导的LT测定中，CPM和SI值更高。具体而言，对于检测对球孢子菌病的细胞免疫，使用自体血浆的球孢子菌素诱导的LT并以CPM表示结果，能在STP和STN受试者之间实现最佳区分。根据流行病学数据，后一种方法在检测对球孢子菌病的细胞免疫方面似乎也比皮肤试验更敏感。总体而言，这些数据说明了不同抗原诱导LT反应的有效性存在差异，并进一步表明了不同血浆来源如何影响LT反应。最后，这些数据表明，以CPM表示的淋巴细胞母细胞转化结果可能比以刺激指数表示的结果在免疫和非免疫受试者之间给出更一致的值和更好的区分。
