Description

About the C57BL/6 Mouse

The C57BL/6 mouse is the most commonly-used inbred mouse strain and is employed in numerous research areas, including immunology, genetics, diabetes and obesity, neurobiology, cardiovascular biology, and developmental biology.  They are routinely used as the background strain for generation of congenics carrying modified genes and/or transgenes.  These mice carry the H-2^b haplotype and their immune cells are commonly used in immune-based assays.  Further, the C57BL/6 mouse is biased towards a Th1 cell-mediated immune response when challenged appropriately.  Together, the C57BL/6 mouse has been extensively used to study numerous scientific questions and their cells (like these C57BL/6 mouse PBMCs) may offer many experimental benefits depending on the parameters of your experiments.

Application Summary for C57BL/6 Mouse PBMCs

C57BL/6 Mouse PBMCs can be used for a wide variety of immunology-based applications. In-vitro immunoassays, such as ELISPOT, mixed lymphocyte reactions, cytotoxicity assays to measure ADCC or CDC, and plaque assays are routinely performed using these cells. In addition, PBMCs are also used in ex-vivo applications, such as cell population characterization and generation of genetically modified cells through retroviral infection.

Isolation of PBMCs

Peripheral blood is obtained from responsible facilities that have many years of experience collecting samples. Since the facilities are local, the blood is quickly transported to iQ Bioscience’s laboratory for processing.

Once at our lab, PBMCs are isolated by performing density centrifugation with Ficoll, a high molecular weight sucrose solution, to remove red blood cells under sterile conditions. Depending on the species (human or non-human) of blood, either 1.077 or 1.084 g/ml Ficoll is used, resulting in a perfect layer of mononuclear cells that are separated from plasma, platelets, granulocytes, and erythrocytes. Additional quality control steps are taken to isolate and prepare PBMCs that ensure the highest viability for cryopreservation and downstream experimental applications.

Cryopreservation and Storage

Our mouse PBMCs are cryopreserved carefully using iQ Biosciences’ cryopreservation protocol that ensures high viability (> 80%) after thawing.

Cells should be stored at < -120°C once they are received, such as within a liquid nitrogen tank (vapor phase).