A method to assess the proliferative activity of small numbers of murine peripheral blood mononuclear cells

An economical, reproducible method was developed to assess the mitogenic response of small numbers of murine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC, 10(3)/ml) to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) stimulation in the presence of feeder layer cells (FLC) and interleukin-2 (IL-2). A linear cell dose-mitogenic response relationship was then demonstrated between the activity of PBMC and spleen cells of individual mice (slope = 1.054 +/- 0.037; r = 0.989 +/- 0.003). This would suggest that mice can be used for longitudinal studies because small blood volumes can be obtained frequently over a period of time from individual mice and the PBMC can be assessed for their T cell proliferative activity.