Clinical immunology
The usefulness of microculture assay system in differential diagnosis and therapeutic management in children. Part 1: the evaluation of reference ranges

Polyclonal activators are widely used as surrogate antigens in analysis of human proliferative response in vitro. The great advantage of microculture system is that it belongs to one of the most powerful diagnostic tool that make possible to characterize some markers of cellular immune response. The relevant diagnostic markers are useful indicators of many different disorders. Part 1 of this study was designed to evaluate the reference ranges of four immunological parameters involved in microculture assay system to estimate the functional activity of cellular PBMC in vitro response in healthy immunocompetent children. The studied parameters were: suppressive activity of T cells (SAT index), the degree of proliferative response against phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) and concanavalin A (ConA) mitogens (PC index), the immunogenic activity of monocytes (LM index) and accessibility of T cell growth factor (IL-2 index). Authors have presented the reference ranges for all parameters included into this system for healthy immunocompetent children that are necessary to carry out the correct analysis of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in vitro in clinical samples. In part 2 we will estimate and discuss the clinical importance, diagnostic accuracy and application each of those parameters in pediatric practice.