A HIGHLY SENSITIVE, RAPID SCREENING METHOD FOR THE DETECTION OF ANTIBODIES DIRECTED AGAINST HLA CLASS-I AND CLASS-II ANTIGENS

Screening of potential transplant recipients for antibodies that can c ause graft rejection is an essential part of the pre-transplant monito ring carried out by tissue typing laboratories. This is a time-consumi ng process and the rapid reporting of results is dependent on the main tenance of frozen cell panels. The usual procedure of screening agains t a panel of random cells takes up to 6 weeks. In this study we have u sed flow cytometric analysis of pooled chronic lymphatic leukaemia (CL L) cells to detect antibodies directed against HLA antigens. We show t hat FACS screening of pooled cells can accurately and rapidly detect t hese antibodies and that the method is suitable for routine use. An es timate of the degree of patient panel reactivity can be determined wit hin a few hours. In addition, the technique is more sensitive than tho se conventionally used, an advantage that may be of importance in prev enting graft damage.