Re: RBC lysis when using buffy coats -> how?

From: Candace Enockson (enockson@musc.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 22 1999 - 09:52:05 EST


Al, when I was doing proliferation and NBT assays, I would dilute my whole
blood with 1 ml 6% dextran/ 10 mL blood, let settle for about 45 minutes in
37C CO2 incubator, and then ficoll the plasma layer.  If I wanted the
mononuclear cells, they were very clean. For PMN's I would resuspend the
pellet in Hank's and add 3 times that volume of distilled water, shake for
60 seconds, followed by an al volmue equal to the total volume of 3.5%
NaCl.  The cells worked beautifully.  Good luck.

Candace Enockson, enockson@musc.edu 

--On Sat, Mar 20, 1999 6:30 PM +0100 Al Sabirsh <Alan.Sabirsh@mphy.lu.se>
wrote:

> 
> Hello to all,
> 
> Does anybody have any suggestions regarding lysis of red blood cells
> contaminating buffy coat preparations?  I'm inclined to use distilled
> water because I want to use the polymorphonuclear cells in a subsequent
> chemotaxis assay (so anything with formaldehyde in it is out of the
> question).  I've tried a number of different approaches, but the buffy
> coat preparation is very thick and seems to be resistant to hypotonic
> shock (even after dilution in 0.85% saline or PBS, or prolonged
> incubation at low salt concentration).  Separating out rbc's using
> density gradients (Ficoll-Iso/Hypaque, before or after attempted lysis)
> doesn't work at all, but I was thinking of using dextran to get them to
> clump together or something (sort of like anti red cell mAbs).  I also
> have a couple of protocols using weak Tris buffers, vinager or ammonium,
> but I thought I'd ask the list because I want something that won't affect
> the function of the polymorphonuclear cells.  So does anyone have
> experience with this?  Should I just give up and use whole blood?  (I
> wouldn't get as many cells that way though....)
> 
> 
> Thanks for the help,
> Al Sabirsh
> One of these grad students who know nothing about whats going on their
> test tubes.  Now where did I put that  cell lysis kit?... (sorry,
> couldn't resist that :-)
> 



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