Quantification and characterization of specific T-cells by antigen-specific cytokine production using ELISPOT assay

Anne Letsch1, Carmen Scheibenbogen

  • 1University Hospital Benjamin-Franklin, Medizinische Klinik III, Hematology, Oncology and Transfusion Medicine, Hindenburgdamm 30, Free University of Berlin, Berlin D-12200, Germany.

Methods (San Diego, Calif.)
|September 6, 2003
PubMed

The novel generation of sensitive T-cell assays facilitates the direct quantitation and characterization of specific T-cell responses. Functional T-cell assays such as the ELISPOT assay and the intracellular cytokine cytometry (ICC) employ the antigen-specific induction of cytokines to detect specific T-cells on a single cell level. ICC has the advantage that the simultaneous phenotypic characterization of the antigen-specific T-cells is possible. There is evidence now from clinical cancer vaccination trials, that there is a relationship between the detection of vaccine-induced T-cells by cytokine-based assays and clinical responses. As these assays become increasingly relevant in clinical practice to suggest issues of assay validation and quality control become of major importance.

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