Cytokine production in nickel-sensitized individuals analysed with enzyme-linked immunospot assay: possible implication for diagnosis
✍ Scribed by E. Jakobson; K. Masjedi; N. Ahlborg; L. Lundeberg; A-T. Karlberg; A. Scheynius
- Book ID
- 104460207
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2002
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 200 KB
- Volume
- 147
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0007-0963
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✦ Synopsis
Background:
Patients with suspected allergic contact dermatitis still have to undergo patch testing for a correct diagnosis. as this has several disadvantages there is a need for additional methods, preferentially those that can be performed in vitro. objectives to investigate the possibility of diagnosing contact allergy to nickel (ni2+) using the enzyme-linked immunospot (elispot) assay that allows the analysis of cytokines at a single-cell level in ex vivo activated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (pbmc).
Methods:
Eleven female patients and nine age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers participated in the study. all patients had a history of nickel allergy and a positive patch test reaction to niso4, while the controls' test was negative. pbmc were cultured in the presence or absence of nicl2. cell proliferation was measured with [3h]thymidine incorporation, and the number of cytokine-producing cells analysed with the elispot assay.
Results:
The proliferative response of pbmc to ni2+, expressed as stimulation index, was significantly higher in the nickel-allergic patients than in the control group. using the elispot assay, we found that pbmc from nickel-allergic individuals responded to ni2+ with significantly greater production of interleukin (il)-4, il-5, il-13 and interferon-gamma, but not il-12, compared with the healthy controls. the number of il-4- and il-5-producing cells correlated with the number of il-13-producing cells in the nickel-allergic patients, but ni2+-induced pbmc proliferation did not correlate with the number of cytokine-producing cells for any of the cytokines tested.
Conclusions:
Our results indicate that the elispot assay could be a tool in the discrimination between nickel-allergic and non-allergic individuals.