Re: Refrigeration of Peripheral Blood
Keith Bahjat (Kbahjat@nwu.edu)
Thu, 27 Feb 1997 09:35:58 -0600
>Concerning the refrigeration of peripheral blood samples for routine testing
>of T/B subsets, traditionally this was thought to induce changes in certain
>antigen levels. Published guidelines (i.e. "CDC MMWR) for Immunophenotyping
>of patient samples suggest using only samples kept at room temperature.
> Question (1) Is this true and are there any recent literature references?
>(2) Is the process reversible after the sample returns to room temperature?
> It wouldn't be difficult to test this but published references would be most
>helpful. (3) What is the current thinking about refrigeration (4-10 C) of
>other samples such as bone marrow, tissues, etc? Thanks for whatever
>references can be provided.
>
>Bruce Greig
>Immunopathology Laboratory
>Vanderbilt University Medical Center
>Nashville, TN. 37232
>(615)322-2682
>Email:Brugreig@aol.com
The guidelines stating that refrigeration would cause loss of selected
populations were created in the era of density-gradient centrifugation.
Whole blood lysis techniques avoid these losses, and therefore
refrigeration is a viable solution for specimen storage/preservation. And
if you can validate it, you can do it (i.e. store specimens you have run at
4 C then run again to validate no changes occur).
An article published in 1993 covered a wide range of storage conditions and
their effect on immunophenotyping:
Paxton H, Bendele T. Effect of time, temperature, and anticoagulant on flow
cytometric hematological values. Ann NY Acad Sci 1993;677:440-3.
good luck.
--
Keith Bahjat
Northwestern University Medical School
Comprehensive AIDS Center
Flow Cytometry Laboratory
Chicago, IL
Kbahjat@nwu.edu