In Vitro Transformation of Frozen - Stored Lym

The transformation response of lymphocytes from patients with chronic lymphatic leukemia (I-9), acute leukemia (10, I1), chronic myelogenous leukemia (12), Hodgkin's disease (4,13, 14), lymphoma (13, 14), ataxia telangiectasia (15, 16), autoimmune diseases (17, 18), myasthenia gravis (19), renal failure (20, 21), and infectious mononucleosis (22) have all been evaluated. The MLR is being evaluated for the detection of tumor-specific antigens (23, 24). Alteration in the MLR following homograft rejection has been described (25-27). In many of these cases, it would be interesting to measure the response of lymphocytes before, during, and after the institution of therapy and/or the correction of the altered immune status. Unfortunately, the lymphocyte culture systems are dependent on many variables (28, 29), and it is difficult to compare the results of one experiment to those obtained several days later. Ideally, one would like to have at the same moment, several samples of lymphocytes obtained at different times during the course of an illness or a procedure. These samples could then be placed in culture at the same time and the multiple variables could thus be controlled.