Correlation of tuberculin skin reaction with in vitro lymphocyte transformation.

Abstract

Several investigators have noted the proliferative effect of tuberculin on short-term tissue cultures of peripheral blood lymphocytes from positive cutaneous reactors since it was first observed by Pearmain and associates (1) and Schreck (2) in 1963. It is generally agreed that a qualitative relationship exists between the presence or absence of transformation in tissue culture and a positive or negative tuberculin skin reaction. McFarland and Heilman (3) noted a rough quantitative relationship between the size of the skin reaction and the degree of in vitro lymphocyte transformation in response to tuberculins prepared from four different mycobacterial species. The present study was designed to de~ termine whether a quantitative relationship existed between the degree of in vitro lymphocyte stimulation by tuberculin in tissue culture and the size of the tuberculin skin reaction in normal subjects and in tuberculous patients. The degree of stimulation of short-term lymphocyte cultures by tuberculin may be estimated by several methods. The proportion of cells incorporating tritiated thymidine into DNA as observed on radioautographs was selected as the index in this study as it was believed to be most objective and to result in the maximal amount of spread between values for minimally and maximally stimulated cultures. The duration of culture, antigen concentration, and length of exposure to labeled