Transfer Factor: Clinical Usage and Experimental Studies

The evolution of clinical immunology and allergy in Australia

“…There was Sherwood Lawrence's transfer factor, a low molecular weight (<10 kDa) leucocyte extract that attracted a great deal of interest because it could apparently induce antigen‐specific T‐cell immunity. It was used to treat patients with T‐cell immunodeficiencies like autoimmune polyendocrinopathy candidiasis ectodermal dystrophy 12 and multiple sclerosis 13 where it appeared to be beneficial despite, in retrospect, lacking any known cytokines. Like the original suppressor T cells, it vanished from the clinical arena in the early 1980s, never to return (in contrast to the re‐emergence of suppressor T cells in the guise of Tregs).…”

The Role of T Cell Subsets and la Antigens in Delayed-Type Hypersensitivity

“…Unlike most if not all the suppressor factors described to date, TF is dialysable with a molecular weight of less than 14,000 daltons. It contains a number of different molecules which can be broadly divided into antigen specific and nonanti gen specific [3]. The former are detected by MIF release in vitro or by in vivo assays of DTH such as ear thickness, whereas the latter cause lymphocyte transformation [12], Particular interest has been focused on the nature of the specific components.…”