Abstract
During the last 20 yr, the enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay has emerged as one of the most important and widely used assays to monitor immune responses in humans and a variety of other species. With the ELISPOT assay, immune cell frequencies can be measured at the single cell level without elaborate expansion or manipulation of cell populations. Its usefulness has led to its application in vaccine design and development and, most importantly, in monitoring vaccination efforts. The impact of results measured with this assay can be profound. In addition to ease of performance, repeatability and reliability are major features expected of an ELISPOT assay. The focus today is on standardization of the technique, validation strategies to comply with these required features, and accommodation of the growing demand of Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) compliance. This chapter will give the experienced scientists as well as newcomers to the field an overview over the major standardization issues for each step of the protocol. Guidelines are given on how to validate the ELISPOT performance.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Czerkinsky C. C, Nilsson L. A., Nygren H., Ouchterlony O., and Tarkowski A. (1983) A solid-phase enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay for enumeration of specific antibody-secreting cells. J. Immunol. Methods 65, 109–121.
Sedgwick J. D., and Holt P. G. (1983) A solid-phase immunoenzymatic technique for the enumeration of specific antibody-secreting cells. J. Immunol. Methods 57, 301–309.
Czerkinsky C, Andersson G., Ekre H. P., Nilsson L. A., Klareskog L., and Ouchterlony 0. (1988) Reverse ELISPOT assay for clonal analysis of cytokine production. I. Enumeration of gamma-interferon-secreting cells. J. Immunol. Methods 110, 29–36.
Janetzki S., Palla D., Rosenhauer V., Lochs H., Lewis J. J., and Srivastava P. K. (2000) Immunization of cancer patients with autologous cancer-derived heat shock protein gp96 preparations: a pilot study. Int. J. Cancer 88, 232–238.
Lewis J. J., Janetzki S., Schaed S., Panageas K. S., Wang S., Williams L., et al. (2000) Evaluation of CD8(+) T-cell frequencies by the ELISPOT assay in healthy individuals and in patients with metastatic melanoma immunized with tyrosinase peptide. Int. J. Cancer 87, 391–398.
Pass H. A., Schwarz S. L., Wunderlich J. R., and Rosenberg S. A. (1998) Immunization of patients with melanoma peptide vaccines: immunologic assessment using the ELISPOT assay. Cancer J. Sci. Am. 4, 316–323.
Wang E, Bade E., Kuniyoshi C, Spears L., Jeffery G., Marty V., et al. (1999) Phase I trial of a MART-1 peptide vaccine with incomplete Freund’s adjuvant for resected high-risk melanoma. Clin. Cancer Res. 5, 2756–2765.
Cox J., deSouza M., Ratto-Kim S., Ferrari G., Weinhold K., and Birx D. (2002) Accomplishing cellular immune assays for evaluation of vaccine efficacy in developing countries., in Manual of Clinical Laboratory Immunology ASM Press, Washingon, DC, pp. 301–315.
Lathey J. (2003) Preliminary steps toward validating a clinical bioassay. BioPharm. Int., 42–50.
Mwau M., McMichael A., and Hanke T. (2002) Design and validation of an enzyme-linked immunospot assay for use in clinical trials of candidate HIV vaccines. AIDS Res. Hum. Retroviruses 18, 611–618.
Scheibenbogen C, Romero P., Rivoltini L., Herr W., Schmittel A., Cerottini J. C, et al. (2000) Quantitation of antigen-reactive T-cells in peripheral blood by IFNgamma-ELISPOT assay and chromium-release assay: a four-centre comparative trial. J. Immunol. Methods 244, 81–89.
Cox J., Ferrari G., Kalams S. A., Lopaczynski W, Oden N., D’Souza P., and Group, a. t. E. C. S. (2005) Results of an ELISPOT proficiency panel conducted in 11 laboratories participating in international immunodeficiency virus type 1 vaccine trials. AIDS Res. & Hu. Retroviruses 21, in press.
Shaw R. D., Merchant A. A., Groene W. S., and Cheng E. H. (1993) Persistence of intestinal antibody response to heterologous rotavirus infection in a murine model beyond 1 year. J. Clin. Microbiol. 31, 188–191.
Boyum A. (1968) isolation of mononuclear cells and granulocytes from human blood. Scand. J. Clin. Lab. Invest. 21, 77–89.
Kreher C. R., Dittrich M. T., Guerkov R., Boehm B. O., and Tary-Lehmann M. (2003) CD4+ and CD8+ cells in cryopreserved human PBMC maintain full functionality in cytokine ELISPOT assays. J. Immunol. Methods 278, 79–93.
Russell N. D., Hudgens M. G., Ha R., Havenar-Daughton C, and McElrath M. J. (2003) Moving to HIV-1 vaccine efficacy trials: defining T-cell responses as potential correlates of immunity. J. Infect. Dis. 187, 226–242.
Smith J. G., Liu X., Kaufhold R. M., Clair J., and Caulfield M. J. (2001) Development and validation of a gamma Interferon ELISPOT assay for quantitation of cellular immune responses to varicella-zoster virus. Clin. Diagn. Lab. Immunol. 8, 871–879.
Weinberg A. (2002) Cryopreservation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells, in Manual of Clinical Laboratory Immunology. ASM Press, Washington, DC, pp. 220–223.
Betensky R., Connick E., Devers J., Landay A., Nokta M., Plaeger S., et al. (2000) Shipment impairs lymphocyte proliferative responses to microbial antigens. Clin. Diagn. Lab. Immunol. 7, 759–763.
Weinberg A., Betensky R., Zhang L., and Ray G. (1998) Effect of shipment, stor age, anticoagulant, and cell separation on lymphocyte proliferation assays for human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients. Clin. Diagn. Lab. Immunol. 5, 804–807.
Currier J., Kuta E., Turk E., Earhart L., Loomis-Price L., Janetzki S., et al. (2002) A panel of MHC class I restricted viral peptides for use as a quality control for vaccine trial ELISPOT assays. J. Immunol. Methods 260, 157–172.
Dudley M. E., Wunderlich J. R., Robbins P. E, Yang J. C, Hwu P., Schwartzentruber D. J., et al. (2002) Cancer regression and autoimmunity in patients after clonal repopulation with antitumor lymphocytes. Science 298, 850–854.
Shankaran V., Ikeda H., Bruce A. T., White J. M., Swanson P. E., Old L. J., et al. (2001) IFNgamma and lymphocytes prevent primary tumour development and shape tumour immunogenicity. Nature 410, 1107–1111.
Yee C, Savage P. A., Lee P. P., Davis M. M., and Greenberg P. D. (1999) Isolation of high avidity melanoma-reactive CTL from heterogeneous populations using peptide-MHC tetramers. J. Immunol. 162, 2227–2234.
Yee C, Thompson J. A., Byrd D., Riddell S. R., Roche P., Celis E., et al. (2002) Adoptive T-cell therapy using antigen-specific CD8+ T-cell clones for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma: in vivo persistence, migration, and antitumor effect of transferred T-cells. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99, 16168–16173.
Camara N. 0., Sebille R, and Lechler R. I. (2003) Human CD4+CD25+ regulatory cells have marked and sustained effects on CD8+ T-cell activation. Eur. J. Immunol. 33, 3473–3483.
Grakoui A., Shoukry N. H., Woollard D. J., Han J. H., Hanson H. L., Ghrayeb J., et al. (2003) HCV persistence and immune evasion in the absence of memory T-cell help. Science 302, 659–662.
Matloubian M., Concepcion R. J., and Ahmed R. (1994) CD4+ T-cells are required to sustain CD8+ cytotoxic T-cell responses during chronic viral infection. J. Virol. 68, 8056–8063.
von Herrath M. G., Yokoyama M., Dockter J., Oldstone M. B., and Whitton J. L. (1996) CD4-deficient mice have reduced levels of memory cytotoxic T-lymphocytes after immunization and show diminished resistance to subsequent virus challenge. J. Virol. 70, 1072–1079.
Wei W. Z., Morris G. P., and Kong Y. C. (2004) Anti-tumor immunity and autoimmunity: a balancing act of regulatory T-cells. Cancer Immunol. Immunother. 53, 73–78.
Wherry E. J., Blattman J. N., Murali-Krishna K., van der Most R., and Ahmed R. (2003) Viral persistence alters CD8 T-cell immunodominance and tissue distribution and results in distinct stages of functional impairment. J. Virol. 77, 4911–4927.
Rosenberg E. S., LaRosa L., Flynn T., Robbins G., and Walker B. D. (1999) Characterization of HIV-1-specific T-helper cells in acute and chronic infection. Immunol. Lett. 66, 89–93.
Currier J. R., deSouza M., Chanbancherd P., Bernstein W, Birx D. L., and Cox J. H. (2002) Comprehensive screening for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 subtype-specific CD 8 cytotoxic T-lymphocytes and definition of degenerate epitopes restricted by HLA-A0207 and-C(W)0304 alleles. J. Virol. 76, 4971–4986.
Larsson M., Jin X., Ramratnam B., Ogg G. S., Engelmayer J., Demoitie M. A., et al. (1999) A recombinant vaccinia virus based ELISPOT assay detects high frequencies of Pol-specific CD8 T-cells in HIV-1-positive individuals. Aids 13, 767–777.
McAdam S., Kaleebu P., Krausa P., Goulder P., French N., Collin B., et al. (1998) Cross-clade recognition of p55 by cytotoxic T-lymphocytes in HIV-1 infection. Aids 12, 571–579.
Pathan A. A., Wilkinson K. A., Wilkinson R. J., Latif M., McShane H., Pasvol G., et al. (2000) High frequencies of circulating IFN-gamma-secreting CD8 cytotoxic T-cells specific for a novel MHC class I-restricted Mycobacterium tuberculosis epitope in M. tuberculosis-infected subjects without disease. Eur. J. Immunol. 30, 2713–2721.
Wilson C. C, Palmer B., Southwood S., Sidney J., Higashimoto Y., Appella E., et al. (2001) Identification and antigenicity of broadly cross-reactive and conserved human immunodeficiency virus type 1-derived helper T-lymphocyte epitopes. J. Virol. 75, 4195–4207.
Draenert R., Altfeld M., Brander C, Basgoz N., Corcoran C, Wurcel A. G., et al. (2003) Comparison of overlapping peptide sets for detection of antiviral CD8 and CD4 T-cell responses. J. Immunol. Methods 275, 19–29.
Edwards B. H., Bansal A., Sabbaj S., Bakari J., Mulligan M. J., and Goepfert P. A. (2002) Magnitude of functional CD8+ T-cell responses to the gag protein of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 correlates inversely with viral load in plasma. J. Virol. 76, 2298–2305.
Ferrari G., Neal W., Jones A., Olender N., Ottinger J., Ha R., et al. (2001) CD8 CTL responses in vaccinees: emerging patterns of HLA restriction and epitope recognition. Immunol. Lett. 79, 37–45.
Kern E, Surel I. P., Faulhaber N., Frommel C, Schneider-Mergener J., Schonemann C, et al. (1999) Target structures of the CD8(+)-T-cell response to human cytomegalovirus: the 72-kilodalton major immediate-early protein revisited. J. Virol. 73, 8179–8184.
Masemola A., Mashishi T., Khoury G., Mohube P., Mokgotho P., Vardas E., et al. (2004) Hierarchical targeting of subtype C HIV-1 proteins by CD8+ T-cells:correlation with viral load. J. Virol. 78, 3233–3243.
Novitsky V., Rybak N., McLane M. E, Gilbert P., Chigwedere P., Klein I., et al. (2001) Identification of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 subtype C Gag-, Tat-, Rev-, and Nef-specific ELISPOT-based cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses for AIDS vaccine design. J. Virol. 75, 9210–9228.
Ioannides C. (2003) Improving the accuracy and speed of mammalian cell counting. Am. Biotechnology Lab. May,, 10–12
Lem L. (2003) Cell counting and viability assessments in the process. Development of cellular therapeutics. BioProcessing J. July/August, 57–60.
Feldkamp C. S., and Carey J. L. (2002) Standardization of Immunoassay methodologies, in Manual of Clinical Laboratory Imunology (Rose N. R., Hamilton R.G., Detrick B., eds), ASM Press, Washington, DC pp. 1215–1226.
Gazagne A., Claret E., Wijdenes J., Yssel H., Bousquet F., Levy E., et al. (2003) A Fluorospot assay to detect single T-lymphocytes simultaneously producing multiple cytokines. J. Immunol. Methods 283, 91–98.
Cui Y., and Chang L. J. (1997) Computer-assisted, quantitative cytokine enzymelinked immunospot analysis of human immune effector cell function. Biotechniques 22, 1146–1149.
Herr W., Linn B., Leister N., Wandel E., Meyer zum Buschenfelde K. H., and Wolfel T. (1997) The use of computer-assisted video image analysis for the quantification of CD8+ T-lymphocytes producing tumor necrosis factor alpha spots in response to peptide antigens. J. Immunol, Methods 203, 141–152.
Vaquerano J. E., Peng M., Chang J. W., Zhou Y. M., and Leong S. P. (1998) Digital quantification of the enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT). Biotechniques 25, 830–836.
Asai T, Storkus W. J., and Whiteside T. L. (2000) Evaluation of the modified ELISPOT assay for gamma interferon production in cancer patients receiving antitumor vaccines. Clin. Diagn. Lab. Immunol. 7, 145–154.
Janetzki S., Schaed S., Blachere N. E. B., Ben-Porat L., Houghton A. N., and Panageas K. S. (2004) Evaluation of ELISPOT assays: influence of method and operator on variability of results. J. Immunol. Methods 291, 175–183.
Lewis C. E., McCracken D., Ling R., Richards P. S., McCarthy S. P., and McGee J. O. (1991) Cytokine release by single, immunophenotyped human cells: use of the reverse hemolytic plaque assay. Immunol. Rev. 119, 23–39.
Hesse M. D., Karulin A. Y, Boehm B. O., Lehmann P. V., and Tary-Lehmann M. (2001) A T-cell clone’s avidity is a function of its activation state. J. Immunol. 167, 1353–1361.
Karulin A. Y, Hesse M. D., Tary-Lehmann M., and Lehmann P. V. (2000) Single-cytokine-producing CD4 memory cells predominate in type 1 and type 2 immunity. J. Immunol. 164, 1862–1872.
Bennouna J., Hildesheim A., Chikamatsu K., Gooding W., Storkus W. J., and Whiteside T. L. (2002) Application of IL-5 ELISPOT assays to quantification of antigen-specific T helper responses. J. Immunol. Methods 261, 145-56.
Dunnet C. W. (1964) New table for multiple comparison with a control. Biometrics 20, 482–491.
Hudgens M. G., Self S. G., Chiu Y, Russell N. D., Horton H., and McElrath M. J. (2004) Statistical considerations for design and anlysis of the ELISPOT assay in HIV-1 vaccine trials. J. Immunol. Methods 288, 19–34.
Hochberg Y, and Tamhane A. C. (1987) Multiple Comparison Procedures. Wiley, New York.
Westfall P. H., and Young S. S. (1993) Resampling-Based Multiple Testing: Examples and Methods for P-Value Adjustment. Wiley, New York
Ewens W. J., and Grant G.R. (2001) Statistical Methods in Bioinformatics. Springer Verlag, New York, pp. 356–360.
Westfall P. H., and Tobias R.D. (1999) Multiple Comparisons and Multiple Tests Using the SAS System. SAS Publishing, Cary, NC.
Fleiss J. L. (1973) Statistical Methods for Rates and Proportions. Wiley, New York.
Landis J. R., and Koch G. G. (1977) The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics 33, 159–174.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Janetzki, S., Cox, J.H., Oden, N., Ferrari, G. (2005). Standardization and Validation Issues of the ELISPOT Assay. In: Kalyuzhny, A.E. (eds) Handbook of ELISPOT. Methods in Molecular Biology™, vol 302. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-903-6:051
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-903-6:051
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-469-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-903-5
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols