[The lymphocyte transformation test in sarcoidosis].

Abstract

A suppressive effect of the sarcoidosis serum on the mitogenic stimulation of lymphocytes could be confirmed statistically (p less than 1%). But there remained a lot of deviating results in distinct individual cases which could not be explained by subdividing the material in regard to different clinical points of view. The practical utility of the LTT as a diagnostic tool in sarcoidosis is therefore very limited. The partly missing suppression or even a stimulation compared to the culture with pooled AB-sera can be interpreted by the interesting phenomenon of a concentration dependent counter-current action of the sarcoidosis serum: On suboptimal PHA-dosage undiluted serum caused a significant reduction of the transformation rate of donor lymphocytes, 1:10 diluted serum was inefficient and in a 1:100 concentration it induced a stimulation (p less than 5%).