In vitro proliferation of blood, spleen and thymus leukocytes from the turtle Mauremys caspica

Abstract

Cell-mediated immune responses is commonly evaluated by cell proliferation assays. Mitogens are known to induce a vigorous proliferative response in lymphoid cells from mammals but relatively fewer studies have investigated mitogen-mediated lymphoproliferation in non-mammalian animals. In the present work, we incubated spleen, thymus and blood leukocytes with phytohaemagglutinin (PHA), concanavalin A (Con A), lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and pokeweed mitogen (PWM), by different times of incubation (96 and 120 h) and at different concentrations. Our results show that the optimal mitogen concentrations inducing proliferation on leukocytes from Mauremys caspica were 20 μg/ml PHA, 1 μg/ml Con A, 12.5 μg/ml LPS and 1/150 dilution PWM. The optimal time of incubation was dependent on the type of leukocytes (peripheral blood leukocytes, splenic leukocytes or thymic cells) and the mitogen utilized.