Measurement of lymphocyte activation by a chromatin topo-optical reaction. Mechanism and specificity of the test.

A rapid inexpensive method is presented for detecting peripheral blood lymphocyte chromatin activation by the neutral red "topo-optical" reaction, which causes strong and easily measurable birefringence in the lymphocyte nuclei. This reaction can be enhanced by fixing the cells with 150 mM/l NaCl in 70% ethanol and/or by treating the unfixed cellular suspensions with 0.2 M/l HCl to remove histones.

Measurement of lymphocyte activation by a chromatin topooptical reaction. II. Application for detecting drug allergy. A clinical and experimental study.

Lymphocyte chromatin activation was measured in 18 clinical cases of suspected or proven drug allergy as well as in 4 other persons with neither history nor signs of hypersensitivity. The different drugs were tested in the reaction in such dilution that the final concentrations ranged between 50 and 10.000 nanomoles.

Immune-complex phagocytosis by human polymorphonuclear granulocytes.

A new two-step centrifugation technique is described for the rapid preparation of viable pure polymorphonuclear granulocytes from 9.5 ml of venous blood. The phagocytosis of these cells was stimulated by soluble DNA-anti-DNA complexes, produced in vitro by incubating high mol.