Lymphocytes

Understanding how the body uses specialised immune cells called lymphocytes in fighting both infections and tumours has been central to designing new strategies for vaccines and immunotheraphy. This book provides practical advice for scientists embarking on the study of lymphocytes in the laboratory, and introduces several new techniques that have revolutionised this field.

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Cellular immunology is a rapidly moving field in which recent advances have made significant contributions to our understanding of the immune response to infection and malignancy. These in turn, have given rise to new therapeutic opportunities in areas such as vaccines and immunotheraphy. Many investigators have been discourages by the complicated protocols involved in cellular immunological studies, as illustrated, by the meticulous care required for the generation of antigen-specific T-cells. Lymphocytes: A Practical Approach (second edition) contains straight-forward protocols for well- established procedures in the study of lymphocytes including preparation and identification of lymphocytes, immortalization, cell and organ culture, and quantification assays. It also covers the recent technological advances which have revolutionised the field, such as the use of the Interferon-gamma ELISpot assay and peptide-HLA tetrameric assays to quantify antigen-specifidc T-cells directly from peripheral blood, without the need for in vitro culture, and molecular methods for accurate HLA typing.