Real time monitoring of lymphocyte proliferation by an impedance method

Impedance methods are routinely used to estimate the concentration of viabl e bacteria in a culture. We have adapted an impedance method to monitor the growth of lymphocytes and used it to monitor lymphocyte proliferation in r eal time. In this method lymphocytes were cultured in modified micro-well s trips with transparent indium-titanium oxide coated electrodes at the botto m. The assay a as totally automated and did not involve handling of radioac tive chemicals. As the method uses a non destructive method of recording th e proliferation, the cells could be used for other studies after the prolif eration assay. Due to the real time monitoring of proliferation, results co uld be obtained within 30 h and additional information such as the rate of proliferation and thr: limiting rate at time-->0 could also be calculated i nstantly. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.