Re: NH4Cl lysing

From: PLM Enterprises and Designs (plem@erols.com)
Date: Thu Sep 25 1997 - 22:01:02 EST


Keith,

Interesting information! About the whole blood, ours (my samples anyway)
are never refrigerated. For some reason, the FACS Lyse did not provide
consistent lysing for us. NOW, that's not to say that it just needed a
whirl on the vortex to mix everything nicely JUST prior to adding the
lysing solution, as I found was needed to bring the effectiveness of the
Gentrak and Coulter product to 100% effectiveness. I think that the
Gebtrak and Coulter products "in my opinion" are better due to speed of
the procedure....BTW, thanks for the info on the NH4CL....I'll have to
try it again to see if a sample is indeed "readable" with a small RBC
pellet present. 

Patricia Echeagaray
Flow Cytometry Services
Southern Research Frederick
Frederick MD USA

Keith Bahjat wrote:
> 
> With regard to lysing solutions. DO NOT refrigerate whole
> blood and expect the red cells to lyse properly. 

Snip 

> I only mention this as I have used BD's lysing solution for
> a very long time, and I have NEVER had it not adequately
> lyse 100 uL of peripheral anticoagulated (EDTA, Na Heparin,
> or ACD) whole blood when 2 mL of lysing solution is used
> UNLESS the sample was refrigerated. 
> 
> As for NH4Cl, I have always seen CONSISTENT performance with
> this in non-refrigerated blood. The quirk is that it
> CONSISTENTLY leaves a pellet of rbc's. BUT, as NH4Cl does
> not shrink the cytoplasm of the cell (as lysing solutions
> with fixatives do), the lymphocytes are quite easy to
> resolve from the rbc's.



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