The use of pooled sera for HLA cytotoxicity crossmatching.

A two-stage procedure is described for cytotoxicity tests in which three different sera from a prospective kidney recipient are pooled in each well of a standard microcytotoxicity test plate. The results are reproducible and as sensitive as those obtained with single sera tests. The technique permits a reduction in time required for a test and the number of wells that must be evaluated to screen a series of sera. It enables a laboratory to run all available sera on patients for cadaver kidney crossmatching and to eliminate hyperacute rejections. Serum pooling may also be used for screening of many sera against random cell panels.