[Study of the cell cycle using flow cytometry in drug allergy]

Drug allergy has been studied by flow cytometry with the technique of cellular cycle, of which the principle is based on cellular activity. There were four groups of patients in the study: The first reference groups (A:20 patients) gave evaluation of phase S + G2-M without antigenic stimulation of monodisperse lymphocyte cultures. This was 4%. The second group (B:15 patients) presented a phase S + G2-M of 14.1% with PHA compared with the reference response significant at 2.5%. The third group (C) was composed of 5 wasp venom allergic subjects with cellular activity phase of 17.3% and 5 nonallergic subjects with an almost identical response of around 15%. The fourth group was 5 subjects who were allergic to drugs with clinical history that strongly indicated an allergy. The response to stimulation in these subjects was much greater for each of the drugs than that of a reference subject who was taking the same drug without problem. Wasp venom seems to behave like PHA, as a mitogen. In contrast, the subjects who were objectively and clinically sensitive to drugs, had an overall greater response to them than those shown by references. It is important to have a control for each drug used.