Radioactive and non-radioactive lymphocyte proliferation assays for measuring rabies-specific cellular immunity.

We compared the radioactive lymphocyte proliferation assay for measuring rabies specific cell-mediated immunity in a group of 42 rabies vaccine recipients with a new technique using rabies-stimulated lymphocytes in a colorimetric test kit (CellTiter 96, Promega Corporation, USA). Results of both tests were good agreement (Kappa = 0.68), however, they did not show good correlation in degree (magnitude) of positivity. In addition, the conventional assay showed a higher degree of sensitivity.