The cytokine Elispot assay is designed to enumerate cytokine secreting cells in single cell suspensions of lymphoid tissue, CNS tissue, bone marrow or preparations of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC).

The assay has the advantage of detecting only activated/memory T cells and the cytokine release can be detected at the single cell level, allowing direct determination of T cell frequencies.

The ELISPOT assay is an effective tool to enumerate antigen-specific T cells in the circulation of immunized humans and animals at much lower frequencies than possible with other currently available methods.

The ELISPOT assay has proven to be a sensitive and unique system to follow disease progression in human individuals or animals. Several studies have indicated that alterations in the frequency of cytokine pc in different compartments of the body adequately reflect changes in immune function.

The ELISPOT assay may be used to determine effects of drugs, chemicals or other compounds on cytokine secretion in vitro, thereby providing data on their putative modulatory effects on immune function in vivo

The ELISPOT assay is currently being used increasingly for the quantitative assessment of peptide reactive T lymphocytes from PBMC in infectious disease (3, 9) or in the course of vaccination trials aimed at the induction of tumor-specific T cells in patients with cancer.

Elispot may be used for Diagnosis of genetic defects,Allergic diseases,Autoimmune diseases,Transplantation,Cancer research,Acute inflammation,Acute infectious diseases and septic shock.