Introduction of a novel proliferation assay for pharmacological studies allowing the combination of BrdU detection and phenotyping.

A recently developed technology for the non-enzymatic detection of the thymidine analog 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) has been evaluated. In contrast to previous enzymatic approaches, Ultraviolet-Induced Detection (UVID) of halogenated pyrimidines allows for a mild detection procedure which enables the simultaneous detection of cellular markers and DNA-synthesis without enzyme-specific disadvantages. Superantigen-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs) have been treated with two different inhibitors of proliferation and the cell cycle of different lymphocyte subsets has been analysed.