Conference scene: how to decipher phenotype and functions of the immune cell compartment

This event was a discussion forum where participants had a chance to explore the advantages and pitfalls of available techniques that measure cell-mediated immunity with experts. The evaluation of cell-mediated immune responses is pivotal in defining how the immune system reacts against pathogens and disease. This study requires the identification of the cell types/subsets involved, accurate quantification and kinetics of effector molecules, and detection of low-frequency reactive cells. Intracellular staining and flow cytometry allow the simultaneous assessment of multiple effector molecules, such as cytokines, and the phenotype in defined activated cell subsets. However, the timely assessment, especially after in vitro re-stimulation of cell samples, is hardly addressed. ELISA allows the accurate determination of multiple effector molecules, but information on their cellular origin is often sacrificed. The same could be said for the enzyme-linked immunospot assay, however, this technique allows for highly sensitive identification of actual cytokine secretion by antigen-specific T cells.