title: A real-time digital bio-imaging system to quantify cellular cytotoxicity as an alternative to the standard chromium-51 release assay.
abstract: Reliable measurement of cellular cytotoxicity is essential for the characterization of immune responses and for the monitoring of antibody treatment efficacy. Until now, the standard51Cr-release assay has remained the sole sensitive assay that measures cellular cytotoxicity. Alternative non-radioactive assays have been developed but they do not provide accurate measurement of target cell cytotoxicity. The cost and hazard of handling radioactivity are strong incentives to find alternative solutions to51Cr. We took advantage of the recent development of cell-imaging multimode readers to develop a novel non-radioactive and real-time cytotoxic assay that demonstrates good reproducibility and sensitivity. The extent of target-cell cytotoxicity is monitored over time by imaging and quantifying live fluorescent target cells in 96-well plates. We have developed classical natural killer cell assays in the presence or absence of blocking antibodies and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity. We show that in these assays, cell killing occurs within the first 2 hr with half maximum killing reached after 30 min. This technology has numerous applications such as natural killer and T-cell cytotoxicity assays and can be extended to cell survival and apoptosis measurement assays.
authors.affiliation: Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS UMR7275, Institut de Pharmacologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Valbonne, France.
authors.forename: Julien
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fassy
authors.affiliation: Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS UMR7275, Institut de Pharmacologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Valbonne, France.
authors.forename: Kyriaki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsalkitzi
authors.affiliation: Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS UMR7275, Institut de Pharmacologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Valbonne, France.
authors.forename: Emie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Salavagione
authors.affiliation: Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS UMR7275, Institut de Pharmacologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Valbonne, France.
authors.forename: Nedra
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hamouda-Tekaya
authors.affiliation: Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS UMR7275, Institut de Pharmacologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Valbonne, France.
authors.forename: Véronique M
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8213-3947
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Braud
mesh_terms: D002469:Cell Separation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002860:Chromium Radioisotopes; D003601:Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic / Q000379:methods*; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006801:Humans; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D002860:Chromium Radioisotopes; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes
keywords: antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity; cell cytotoxic assay; cytotoxic T cells; lectin-like transcript 1; natural killer cells