Examination of the immunocompetent cell composition of contact dermatitis. Methods for liberating infiltrative dermal cells and measuring antigen-dependent chromatin birefringence in them.

Infiltrating cells from the dermis can be literated without serious damage to the cell surface by cautious enzymatic treatment in a cell extractor. A new rapid method has been worked out measuring lymphocyte stimulation by detecting changes in the chromatin's birefringence. The chromatin's anisotropy depended upon antigen concentration, incubation time at 37 degrees and was unsignificantly influenced by the samples' cellularity, between 4 x 10(5) and 4 x 10(7) cells per ml. Therefore, it was concluded that the stimulated lymphocytes in the eczematous infiltrate can be detected by birefringence after incubating for 30 min with proper concentrations of the antigen.