A rapid screening technique for lymphocytotoxic antibodies using tray-frozen lymphocytes

A method whereby sera can be screened for the presence of lymphocytotoxic antibodies within 4 hr using lymphocytes frozen in microtest trays is described. The reactions of the sera of 48 hemodialysis patients against freshly prepared lymphocytes were compared with those against tube-frozen (384 reaction pairs) and tray-frozen (864 reaction pairs) cells. There was a better than 90% concordance, and only 3% of the reactions differed from negative to strongly positive or vice versa. Preliminary results indicate that the method is also suitable for B-cell (HLA-DR) antibody testing. Routine screening against 50- or 100-cell panels can be accomplished more rapidly and more efficiently using tray-frozen lymphocytes. The data matrix for analysis of a serum's HLA specificity is greatly reduced in comparison to the conventional screening technique, rendering the method particularly suitable for microcomputer processing.