Peanuts are the food allergens most associated with severe and fatal allergic reactions. Peanut allergy in children is a growing problem and patients often have a persistent reaction that lacks effective treatment. The differences between the allergic T lymphocytes and normal immune responses to foods in these patients are difficult to explore because circulating food antigen-specific lymphocytes are very rare. In the April 1,
Turcanu et al. used carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester staining to separate peanut-specific lymphocytes by flow cytometry and subsequent cloning. They examined peripheral blood lymphocytes responses from peanut allergic (PA) children, and compared them with T cells from children who had never ...
