Importance of using primmed cells in ELISPOT assay SolutionE

Importance of using primmed cells in ELISPOT assay ??

Solution

ELISPOT assay is Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSpot assay which is used for testing cellular immune responses in humans. It is used for monitoring graft rejection in case of transplants and tuberculosis too. It is very sensitive and can detect  rare antigen-specific T cells (or B cells) acurately.The process in which the T and B cells come in contact with the specific antigen for the first time and then differentiate into effector T or B cells, is called Priming.

The primed cells secrete analyte or cytokines which will be captured by coated Ig. T cells will be washed. After this the secreted product linked with Ig is further incubated with biotinylated antibody followed by next steps.

If the cells were not primed, they will not be able to secrete analyte or cytokines which is important for binding to coated Ig.