Clinical Chemistry, Vol 40, 38-42, Copyright © 1994 by American Association for Clinical Chemistry

Quantitative determination of CD4/CD8 molecules by a cell marker ELISA

L Franke, E Nugel, WD Docke and T Porstmann
Department of Medical Immunology, Medical School (Charite), Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany.

Determination of percentages of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection is usually done by flow cytometric analysis. We compared a cell marker ELISA with flow cytometry for quantitation of CD4 and CD8 molecules on T lymphocytes, and correlated the values both with the number of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes and with clinical data. Results by cell marker ELISA (y) correlated well with those by flow cytometric analysis (x); r = 0.69, P < 0.001 (y = 0.01x + 3.9) for CD4; r = 0.81, P < 0.001 (y = 0.03x + 5.4) for CD8; n = 343. The ELISA detected changes in numbers of CD8 molecules on the cells earlier than flow cytometry recognized changes in CD8+ T-cell counts. The advantages of the ELISA are the small sample volume required (0.5 mL of blood), its internal standardization by a CD4+/CD8+ cell line, and its simple and fast performance. The cell marker ELISA appears to be an efficient alternative to flow cytometry.

The following articles in journals at HighWire Press have cited this article:

				R. Kannangai, S. Ramalingam, M. V. Jesudason, T. S. Vijayakumar, O. C. Abraham, A. Zachariah, and G. Sridharan Correlation of CD4+ T-Cell Counts Estimated by an Immunocapture Technique (Capcellia) with Viral Loads in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Seropositive Individuals Clin. Vaccine Immunol., November 1, 2001; 8(6): 1286 - 1288. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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