Evaluation of a test system for measuring cytokine production in human whole blood cell cultures

Abstract

A simple and reproducible method is described for the measurement of mitogen-induced cytokine production in cultures of both human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and whole blood. In the culture supernatants the cytokines interleukin-1α (IL-1α), interleukin-2 (IL-2), interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) were determined by a rapid and sensitive immunoassay using various monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies. Comparing the PBMC cultures with the whole blood system a good correlation was obtained if the cell number was taken into account. In the post-induction supernatants the cytokine values were found to follow typical kinetic curves. The protocol was evaluated by screening 60 cancer patients with primary disease and 60 healthy controls. A markedly reduced secretion of IFN-γ and IL-1α was found in the cancer patients compared to controls, although leukocyte and lymphocyte counts were almost identical in both groups.