ELISpot in allergy research

Due to its high sensitivity and easy performance, the ELISpot assay has proven to be an extremely useful method for measuring antigen-specific T-cell responses in a variety of situations. Not only is it ideally suited to detect the often low frequencies of T cells involved in a specific immune response but with the possibility to vary the detected cytokine it also provides qualitative information of the type of responding cells.

As shown by several studies, the ELISpot assay may be particularly useful for detecting allergen-specific T cells since these typically occur in very low numbers and detection is often based on the cytokine IL-4 which has been consistently difficult to detect by means of other methods. These features make the assay valuable for studies on various types of hypersensitivities and it has been used to characterize the immunological mechanisms involved in both atopic and contact allergy.