[Locomotion of human circulating lymphocytes methodological aspects "in vitro" (author's transl)]

Locomotor activity of lymphocytes from human peripheral blood towards the chemoattractant casein was examined in vitro in modified Boyden chambers with a single micropore filter (according to the Wilkinson's method), and in Keller's chambers with two micropore filters. Using the single filter technique, this paper reports the precise standard parameters necessary for a reproductive assay, that is a filter of 5 micron pore size (Millipore), an incubation of 5 h with 5 mg/2 ml of alpha-casein, and the counting of lymphocytes at the front of migration within the filter. The distinction between the chemotaxis (directional locomotion) and the chemokinesis (random migration) in the presence of the alpha-casein was confirmed with human circulating lymphocytes. When the results obtained with the double filter technique are compared with that of single filter, Keller's method shows no advantage over the single filter technique modified by Wilkinson. The latter appears adequate to study specific and non-specific drug-induced lymphocyte chemotaxis and chemokinesis with normal or pathological cells in man.