Lymphocyte transformation in vitro in patients with immunodeficiency diseases: use in diagnosis, histocompatibility testing and monitoring treatment.

We have used lymphocyte stimulation in vitro to characterize the degree of cell-mediated immunodeficiency in different patients. The effect of treatment of patients with immunodeficiencies is illustrated by lymphocyte transformation in vitro before, during and after therapy (eg bone marrow transplantation of severe combined immunodeficiency and transfer factor treatment in Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome). The mixed lymphocyte culture test has been used for selection of bone marrow transplant donor for a patient with CID when an HL-A identical sib was not available. The results of the transplantation in this patient with graft from a donor who differed from the patient in respect of both HL-A haplotypes (but MLC identical with the patient) is reported. The MLC data on another family with 2 children with Nezelof disease are reported. The data indicate that one of the patients could be a chimera after intrauterine grafting of maternal immunocompetent cells.