Improved DR typing of cadaver donor by lymphocyte incubation.

Of 39 consecutive cadaver donors tested, DR antigens could not be detected in 17. Following 3 h incubation of the B lymphocytes at 37 degrees C, eight of the donors with no detectable DR antigens had two DR antigens and nine had one DR antigen. In addition, there were nine cases in which a potential cadaver donor had one antigen before incubation and two DR antigens following incubation. The simple technique of pre-incubating B lymphocytes before testing has helped considerably in prospectively typing cadaver donors for HLA-DR.