This assay has the further advantage that whole protein can be used to stimulate T cell responses, which allows responses to

be detected from donors regardless of their HLA type, in contrast to peptide-based assays such as tetramer staining, which must use donors with the appropriate HLA allele(s). Disadvantages.  The number of positive cells in type 1 diabetes detected selleck inhibitor using these ELISPOT formats are low and the assay is somewhat blood- and labour-intensive. 1 PBMCs are isolated from fresh blood samples within 4 h of blood collection by gradient density centrifugation. Background.  The cytokine secretion assay (CSA) (Miltenyi Biotec, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany) can detect very-low-frequency antigen-specific T cells by staining the secreted cytokine(s) on the surface of individual antigen-reactive T cells. The CSA was developed originally by Manz et al. in 1995 and is based on the generation of a cell surface affinity matrix for the cytokine of interest [39]. The affinity matrix is generated using dual mAbs (catch reagent), constructed by covalently binding anti-CD45 mAb to an anti-cytokine mAb (i.e IL-2, IL-10, IFN-γ). The dual mAbs bind to CD45 on the cell surface of

lymphocytes. After a short culture period the cells are ‘stained’ with the dual mAb that binds to the cell surface and captures the secreted cytokine. The antigen-reactive cell population can be defined using mAbs specific for cell lineage markers and flow cytometry. Whole blood or purified PBMC can be used in the assay. Incubation for 16 h is required to detect responses to intact antigen, whereas 6–8 h is optimal for peptides. selleck chemicals Responses with and without islet antigens (for example, hrGAD65, insulin and proinsulin) are compared. Advantages.  First, a small amount of whole blood is needed to perform the assay (250 µl/cytokine, 1–2 ml total). Secondly, the short stimulation time decreases the risk of expanding selected clones or bystander cells rendering the calculation of precursor frequencies

more reliable. Thirdly, the CSA permits further phenotype antigen-specific T cells (e.g. activation markers, memory/naive, regulatory markers). Lastly, the CSA offers the possibility Methocarbamol to isolate live antigen-specific T cells. Disadvantages.  If not combined with the use of tetramers, CSA fails to detect autoantigen-specific T cells that did not respond to stimulation by secreting the cytokine of interest. This could be important when using the assay to monitor trials of immune therapy, making it difficult to distinguish between clonal deletion and functional anergy. 1 Collect venous blood into heparin-containing tubes. Background.  Cellular immunoblotting allows for the full array of islet antigens to be used to test for the presence of islet-reactive T cells [26]. This technique eliminates the guesswork of which proteins to use.