New mixed lymphocyte microculture test harvested by a simple device developed for this purpose

The methodology of the conventional mixed lymphocyte culture test has been simplified and miniaturized by developing a micromethod employing Terasaki trays with a final culture volume of 20 mul containing between 10,000 and 20,000 responding and stimulating cells each/culture. This represents one-tenth the cell concentration of the conventional mixed lymphocyte culture. For this new test, a special microharvester has been designed and developed. The test allows accurate and reproducible results giving a high level of discrimination between the different levels of response.