Simple technique for examining lymphocyte blastogenesis in whole blood cultures for neonatal calves

A method for examining lymphocyte blastogenesis in whole blood cultures of neonatal calves is presented. Considerable variation in magnitude of thymidine incorporation was noted between animals but the general trend of response was uniform. Maximum responses occurred at different culture times for each mitogen. In a standard 0.2 ml micro culture system using 10,000 mononuclear cells per culture incubated for 96 hours in 5 per cent fetal bovine serum maximum mitogenic responses were obtained with 0.8 microgram phytohaemagglutinin per culture, 1 microgram concanavalin A per culture and 0.08 microgram pokeweed mitogen per culture.