Drug-Induced Lymphocyte Transformation in Peripheral Lymphocytes from Patients with Drug Eruptions

In some types of drug eruptions, a positive blastoid transformation is frequently seen in peripheral lymphocytes when they are stimulated in vitro with the causative drug in the presence of autologous serum. In these cases, a soluble fraction prepared from guinea pig skin can replace the autologous serum in inducing the lymphocyte transformation, whereas either the mitochondrial or microsomal fraction of guinea pig skin instead of the autologous serum is less effective. Moreover, in fixed drug eruption, the addition of soluble skin material fractionated by gel filtration with Sephadex G-100 (FrD1 is as effective as the autologous sera in inducing lymphocyte transformation. These results suggest that the soluble fraction of skin is related to the pathogenesis of fixed and exanthematic drug eruptions as a carrier substance of drugs.