The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL) as stimulating cells in mixed lymphocyte culture (MLC).

The MLC response of normal lymphocytes to different kinds of EBV-transformed LCL was investigated. The response to allogeneic LCL cells remarkably exceeded the response to xenogeneic and autologous LCL cells. Stimulation performed with EBV-transformed and normal cells obtained from the same donors showed a correlation in the reaction levels (Q = 0.434). This incomplete correlation was not improved by the reduction of the number of stimulating LCL cells. In MLC stimulated with LCL no statistically significant differences between responses to 2,1 or alloantigens were found.