I want to asses the cellular immunity against an AG in Mice. Chromium release assays that use for cytotoxic activity of CTLs is difficult for me. So, I want to know if there are any easier ways?
if you have access to a FACS machine you can do staining for perforin in the cytotoxic T cells or looking for cleaved caspase substrates in the target cells. Another option is to use colorimetric tests for cell lysis. These are commercially available from different suppliers.
Two convenient, modern, and accepted methods for CD8+ CTL assays are usually done in tandem: (1) LAMP-1 (CD107a) exposure. LAMP-1 is exposed on the surface of the CTL when cytotoxic granules are released. antibody must be incubated with the culture during the last 2h or so. Double-stain for the killer with CD8, NK, etc. (2) Differentially labeled (CFSEhi or CFSElo) targets co-cultured together with killers. One contains antigen, one doesn't. Mix the targets 50-50 before culturing with killers overnight. Measure the change in the % of Ag+ target. Both of these are cheap and quite easy if you have access to a flow cytometer.