Why choose an ELISPOT assay?
ELISPOT assays are among the most-sensitive and -specific methods available for cytokine research permitting the ex-vivo identification of cells actively secreting cytokines. Moreover the assay is fast and highly efficient and can detect a single cell out of a million. Major advantages of the ELISPOT assay are its relatively easy performance, its potential for high throughput screening and no requirement for expensive instruments. Because of the short-term in vitro culture, the measured response closely mirrors the in vivo T cell frequency of an individual. The ELISPOT assay has the lowest detection threshold among the assays available for detection of T cell responses. The classical T cell assays are lymphoproliferation assays (LPA) and cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) assays that measure CD4+ and CD8+ T cell-mediated immune responses, respectively. Both the CTL and LPA assays have their drawbacks including the use of radioactivity, low throughput screening, decreased sensitivity in cryop
