Patent ID: 8071325

Claim:
A method for determining beryllium sensitivity of a subject, said method comprising: a. Obtaining a blood sample from a subject; b. Selecting a peripheral blood leukocyte (PBL) population from said blood sample; c. Staining said peripheral blood leukocyte (PBL) population obtained from said blood sample with an intracellular protein stain; d. Contacting said population with an amount of a beryllium containing compound sufficient to stimulate or enhance proliferation of said population; and e. Measuring the loss of intracellular protein staining, whereby loss of intracellular protein staining indicates proliferation and that a subject is sensitive to beryllium; wherein the method further comprises the step of selecting a subpopulation of said peripheral blood leukocyte population using a cell surface marker and a viability marker, wherein said surface marker is CD3 and wherein said viability marker enables the exclusion of dead cells that lose the intracellular protein stain.