>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
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