Blastogenic Response in the Rat Lymphocyte Using Glucose Consumption Test

Abstract

To estimate the immune function of the rat, the blastogenic response of rat lymphocytes in blood drawn from the vena cava was investigated. The recovery rate of lymphocytes from venous blood was 33.2±2.23% and their viability rate was 99.8±0.25%. Three kinds of mitogens (phytohemaggultinin-M, concanavalin A and pokeweed mitogen) at three different concentrations (high, middle and low) were added to lymphocyte suspensions, and the suspensions were cultured under 5% CO₂incubation. Cultured suspensions were served for glucose consumption test and values were calculated (glucose consumption test-stimulation ratio (GCT-SR) ) . Incidence of blast cells was also observed by morphology. In both the GCT-SR and blast cell incidence, the highest values, 41.2% and 50.8%, respectively, were obtained after stimulation with phytohemaggultinin-M at the concentration of 0.1 ml/ml. The results were statistically analyzed by the variance of means. On both the GCT-SR and blast cell incidence, values obtained in each condition (kind of mitogens on the concentration used) were all statistically significant (all P<0.01) . The correlation coefficient between the GCT-SR values and the blast cell incidence was 0.97 (P<0.01) . From these results, we concluded that the glucose consumption test using rat blood lymphocytes can be used as a safe and simple method to measure the immune function of rats.