Basophil activation is an in vitro assessment of allergic response that closely resembles the in vivo situation. The test require only small amount of whole blood and allows measurement of basophil functional response both for allergy diagnosis and for clinical monitoring (immunotherapy). Basophil activation can be assessed by expression of cellular markers after cell stimulation with flow cytometry.

Basophil activation assay: In a resting basophil CD203c is constitutively expressed at low levels, but is quickly up-regulated upon cell activation. CD63 is primarily present inside the cell granules. Upon activation the granules fuse with the cell membrane and CD63 is then exposed on the cell surface, thus expression of CD63 is closely associated with degranulation.

KEY APPLICATIONS:

The basophil activation test is also very suitable for the analysis of pathophysiological responses to drugs, chemicals and other compounds which have not been evaluated for adverse side effects.
Our team at GBS Leiden can help during the whole process, from designing of the study, web-lab expertise, samples requirement as well as data analysis and interpretation.