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Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology™ ((MIMB,volume 43))

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abstract

The increasing interest in immunotoxicology as a subtopic of toxicol- ogy acknowledges the growing recognition that the immune system and immunocompetence per se may be a sensitive and perhaps early indica- tor of toxicity. Indeed, accumulating evidence based on human and exper- imental animal studies now link exposure to a variety of drugs and chemical agents with various immunotoxic processes, including immu- nosuppression and hypersensitization (1,2). The primary objective of this chapter is to describe a minimum battery of standardized techniques that allows the routine assessment of potentially immunotoxic compounds (3,4). The chapter is divided into three main sections: the first covers humoral immunity, namely the plaque assay; the second is concerned with cell-mediated immunity and covers in vitro T-cell mitogenicity; the third covers the mixed lymphocyte assay and in vitro cytotoxicity.

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© 1995 Humana Press Inc , Totowa, NJ

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Nicklin, S. (1995). Immune Function Assays. In: O’Hare, S., Atterwill, C.K. (eds) In Vitro Toxicity Testing Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology™, vol 43. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/0-89603-282-5:245

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/0-89603-282-5:245

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-89603-282-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-530-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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