I have noticed that samples which have been refrigerated for any period of time seem to have poor RBC lysis (seems especially bad in calcium chelating anticoagulants) (Yes, I know most lysis solutions don't work at 4 degrees, and all samples and reagents are warmed to room temp before use). Certainly we know refrigeration stabilizes RBCs for hematology, and what this actually does to the cytoskeleton of the RBC is unknown. In my experience, this condition is irreversible, as warming the samples back to room temp does not reverse this phenomenon. Permanent cytoskeletal changes? Changes in ion channel conformation? I usually tell people to avoid cooling samples if at all possible. This may all be BS, but hey, what do I know, I'm just one of them there ignorant graduate students :-) kb -- ----------------------------------------------- Keith Bahjat Graduate Assistant University of Florida College of Medicine Gainesville, Florida kbahjat@ufl.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Apr 03 2002 - 11:53:18 EST