Very Few Cytolytic T Cells are Detectable by a Non-Radioactive Long Term Fluorolysis Assay in Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TIL) from Cervical Cancer

Analysis of T cell cytolytic activity to specific antigens has become a routine procedure to investigate immunity to infection and vaccination. Peripheral blood and biopsy material from local tissues of patients is mostly available only in very limited amounts. Therefore, efficient procedures for analysis of small numbers of rare T cells from tissue samples is mandatory. We have adapted a highly sensitive cytolysis test, the fluorolysis assay (Kienzle et al., 2002, JIM), for the human system. The fluorolysis assay benefits from the use of small numbers of effector and target cells, a long incubation time without…