A microculture system for the measurement of antigen-induced murine lymphocyte proliferation: advantages of 5% horse serum and 5 X 10(-5) M mercaptoethanol.

Short term microculture systems which measure murine lymphocyte proliferative responses to mitogens are well established. We demonstrate here that these microculture methods are not suitable for antigen-induced responses because of the high levels of murine lymphocyte proliferation in control cultures associated with the use of fetal calf serum or human serum. We also show that this problem can be eliminated with the use of a combination of 5% horse serum and 5 X 10(-5) M mercaptoethanol. We describe an antigen-induced murine lymphocyte proliferation microculture system in which good stimulation indices are achieved and the lymphocyte proliferation in control cultures remain at a low level throughout the 7 day culture period.