Enrichment of human basophils

A 3-step procedure is described in detail for producing 50% basophils in 50% yield from human blood. Leukocytes from dextran sedimented blood or preferably whole blood are sedimented on Hypaque-Ficoll, then on aqueous Hypaque, followed by adherence and elution from a column of glass beads. The cells appear normal and undergo specific histamine release after incubation with antigen. The procedure is relatively rapid and should allow further study of mechanisms of mediator release with more homogeneous populations of basophils. The first step also provides a 5 min separation of blood into a lymphocyte enriched mononuclear cell fraction and a granulocyte enriched fraction.