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Cytokines secreted by cells of the immune system can alter the behavior and properties of immune or other cells. At a site of inflammation, sets of cytokines interact with immune cells, and their combined effect is often more important than the function of one isolated component. Conventional techniques, such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, generally require large quantities of cells to characterize a complete cytokine profile of activated lymphocytes. The Bio-Plex system from Bio-Rad Laboratories combines the principle of a sandwich immunoassay with the Luminex fluorescent-bead-based technology. We developed a multiplex cytokine assay to detect different cytokines simultaneously in culture supernatant of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells stimulated with antigen and with mitogen. Fifteen human cytokines (interleukin 1α [IL-1α], IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12p70, IL-13, IL-15, IL …