Evaluation of macrophage electrophoretic mobility ( MEM ) test as an indicator of cellular immunity in ocular tumours AMJAD

That mammalian cells migrate in an electrical field with differing speeds depending upon their surface charge has been known for some time (Ambrose, I965). This method of cell electrophoresis was first applied in experimental immunology by Sunderam, Phondke, and Ambrose (I967), who showed that the electrophoretic migration of peritoneal macrophages from a guinea-pig previously immunized with a given antigen is slowed when that antigen is present in the incubation medium. Similarly, the speed of migration of blood lymphocytes in an electrical field is slower in the presence of the antigen to which they are sensitized (Bert, Di Cossano, and Pecco, I969). One of the techniques currently available for the in vitro diagnosis of cellular immunity is the macrophage migration inhibition test introduced by David, Al-Askari, Lawrence, and Thomas (I964). When guinea-pig peritoneal macrophages (or, as the test has been modified recently, human blood leucocytes) are put into a capillary tube mounted horizontally in a chamber containing a culture medium they migrate in the space of I2 to 24 hours to form a mushroom, the area of which can be measured. If sensitized T-lymphocytes are present among the macrophages and the antigen to which these lymphocytes are sensitized in vivo are present in the ambient fluid the mushroom formed by the macrophage (or the leucocyte) migration is much reduced, and the reduction in the area (expressed as percentage migration inhibition) is a measure of the degree of cellular immunity or delayed hypersensitivity. This slowing or inhibition of migration is the result of the interaction of the antigen with sensitized, thymus-derived T-lymphocytes, which in turn produce a migration inhibition factor (MIF): this acts on the macrophages and blood leucocytes to alter their metabolism in such a way that their locomotion is slowed down. Field and Caspary (1970) reported an in vitro test for cancer in which lymphocytes from patients with malignant disease can be stimulated by a basic protein derived from human brain, commonly known as encephalitogenic