Abstract
Leucocytes from normal individuals and from patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) in remission receiving active immunotherapy with allogeneic AML blasts (AML-I) were cultured for 6 days with AML-I blasts, Burkitt's lymphoma cells (BL) or lymphoblastoid cells (LCL). The leucocytes were then tested for cell-mediated cytotoxicity (CMC) against 51Cr-labelled AML-I, BL or LCL target cells. There was no substantial difference in the CMC of leucocytes from patients and normals cultured without stimulation, and tested against AML-I, BL or LCL targets. Patient's leucocytes stimulated in vitro with AML-I had a greater frequency of positive CMC responses against AML-I, BL and LCL than normal individuals. The results suggest that co-cultivation of leucocytes with AML-I blasts reactivates memory cytotoxic leucocytes in AML patients receiving immunotherapy and that this test may be useful in measuring the effectiveness of immunotherapy.