Statistical evaluation of the lymphocyte proliferation assay with non-stimulated cultures

A micromethod for the lymphoproliferative assay has been evaluated statistically with non-stimulated human lymphocyte combinations. Different variance components were estimated by means of a hierarchical analysis of variance. Instead of using an arbitrary value for a significant difference between stimulated and non-stimulated cultures, the value can be calculated on the basis of the components of variance in the experimental design. The method disclosed systematic differences between the values of control cultures depending on the lymphocyte combinations and groups of persons examined, which underlines that every experiment should always contain non-stimulated cultures. Further, cell-cell cooperation and differences in spontaneous DNA synthesis within individual lymphocyte populations could be demonstrated.