1. Many measures of immune function used in ecoimmunological studies were optimized for endotherms and may not adequately characterize immunocompetence in ectothermic species. Lymphocytes are interpreted as functioning in adaptive immunity despite evidence that large proportions of these cells have innate immune functions, including phagocytosis, in ectotherms.
2. We modified previously published protocols to remove many barriers that inhibited the wide application of assays to quantify phagocytic activity in lymphocytes. These barriers included the use of species‐specific reagents, high cost and incompatibility with field work. We statistically compared published methods to our simplified technique using blood samples collected from tortoises.
3. We show the efficacy of the new technique and offer an outline for optimizing these methods for different species and to address a wide variety of ecoimmunological questions.
4. A full understanding of immune function in ectothermic vertebrates is needed to comprehend complex epidemiological patterns. As our assay disentangles the relationship between effector cells (lymphocytes) and their function (phagocytosis), these methods provide a foundation for more thorough analyses of ecoimmunological patterns.

中文翻译：

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量化外热脊椎动物的吞噬淋巴细胞：一种评估免疫功能的简化技术

1. 生态免疫学研究中使用的许多免疫功能指标均针对吸热进行了优化，可能无法充分表征外吸菌种的免疫能力。尽管有证据表明淋巴细胞中的大部分具有外在的等温线中固有的免疫功能，包括吞噬作用，但淋巴细胞仍被认为具有适应性免疫功能。
2. 我们修改了以前发表的协议，以消除许多障碍，这些障碍抑制了定量分析淋巴细胞吞噬活性的检测方法的广泛应用。这些障碍包括使用物种特异性试剂，成本高以及与野外工作不兼容。我们使用从陆龟身上采集的血液样本对公开发表的方法与我们的简化技术进行了统计比较。
3. 我们展示了这项新技术的功效，并提供了针对不同物种优化这些方法并解决各种各样的生态免疫问题的概述。
4. 要了解复杂的流行病学模式，需要对透热脊椎动物的免疫功能有一个全面的了解。由于我们的分析方法无法弄清效应细胞（淋巴细胞）与其功能（吞噬作用）之间的关系，因此这些方法为更彻底地分析生态免疫模式提供了基础。