comparison of two proliferation assays mtt and ltt in immunodeficient patients

mtt assay is designed for spectrophotometric quantification of cell growth and viability without using the radiactive isotopes. the aim of this study is com¬parison of ltt and mtt as sensitive poliferation assays in immunodeficient pa¬tients. 20 immunodeficient and 20 healthy subjects were selected in this study. all of them had normal lymphocytes count, normal cd3 and negative dth reac¬tion to ppd, dt and candida. the immunodeficient patients regularly suffered from herpes, candida and staph abscess. the lymphocytes of immunodeficient control groups were treated with pha as mitogen. the lymphocyte proliferation was evaluated by mtt and ltt. the results showed a strong correlation between ltt and mitt between immunodeficient patients and healthy controls. the sen¬sitivity test for mtt was 90%, and the sensitivity test for ltt was 98%. mtt method can be considered as a non-radiactive evaluation of cell proliferation. detecting cell proliferation with accurate, sensitive, fast, easy and safe method is more preferable than ltt.