INDUCTION OF TYPE-IV HYPERSENSITIVITY IN ANIMAL BY IN-VITRO HAPTENIZED PERITONEAL-EXUDATE CELLS

The induction of type IV hypersensitivity to contact allergens in guin ea pigs is studied by using paraffin induced allogenic peritoneal exud ate cells (PEC) (> 90 % macrophages) which were primarily incubated in vitro with p-aminobenzoic acid, nickel II sulphate, potassium dichrom ate, formaldehyde, or dinitrochlorbenzene. In this guinea pig sensitiz ation experiments, Freund's complete adjuvant has been used In all inv estigated haptens the sensitization rates of the presented method were parallel to the known contact allergenicity in humans and comparable with those of accepted assays for the predictive evaluation of contact allergenicity. The authors conclude that this method can be used as a predictive test assay in special questions for the evaluation of the contact allergenicity of water-soluble substances.