ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the investigation of drug-induced changes in immune function. Before discussing specific investigative techniques, a few general points should be made. Many tests for evaluation of the immune system are complex, time-consuming and expensive. In cell-sorting techniques have advanced considerably. With fluorescein-activated cell-sorting techniques, cells labelled with monoclonal antibodies tagged with fluorescein can be sorted and quantified in a fraction of the time required when manual methods are used. Antigen-specific stimulation can also be used to assess modulatory drugs, especially in cell-mediated immunity by skin testing for delayed-type hypersensitivity responses. Skin testing evaluates both the afferent and efferent limbs of the cell-mediated immune response in vivo and is therefore a useful technique for drug evaluation. Assessment of the biological events involved in microbial killing is also used to assess immune function. Cells of neutrophil or monocyte lineage respond by chemotaxis or random migration to chemoattractants in vitro.
