The lymphocyte transformation test in the diagnosis of drug hypersensitivity

Diagnosis of drug hypersensitivity is difficult, as an enormous amount of different drugs can elicit various immune-mediated diseases with distinct pathomechanism. The lymphocyte transformation test (LTT) measures the proliferation of T cells to a drug in vitro--from which one concludes to a previous in vivo reaction due to a sensitization. This concept of the LTT has been confirmed by the generation of drug-specific T-cell clones and the finding that drugs can directly interact with the T-cell receptor, without previous metabolism or need to bind to proteins. In this review, technical aspects and usefulness of this test for the diagnosis of drug hypersensitivity are discussed. The main advantage of this test…