Description

About our Donors

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a hematologic cancer and the most common type of leukemia. The cause is the uncontrolled growth of B cells that accumulate in the blood, bone marrow, and lymphoid tissues, which crowd out healthy blood cells, including red blood cells and non-B cell white blood cells. This leads to lymphocytosis (elevation of white blood cell levels, specifically of B cells) , enlarged lymphoid tissues, and thrombocytopenia (the loss of red blood cells).

Our CLL donors are sourced from a renowned world-class blood collection center that has been a pioneer in many screening processes. All donors have been tested for various infectious diseases, including HIV and Hepatitis B/C, as well as normal levels of hemoglobin. Further, donors undergo a screening questionnaire to disclose vital statistics, medication, cancer history, and travel history to ensure that they are healthy and their PBMCs will reliably serve your research endeavors.

Application Summary for Human CLL PBMCs

PBMCs from CLL patients are predominantly used to identify and characterize various cell populations in the peripheral blood of these individuals. Researchers often use flow cytometry to identify surface proteins and categorize different cell types. In addition, certain cell populations are purified to identify intracellular proteins by western blot analysis and/or for functional characterization. Other uses include acting as targets to test the efficacy of biologics.

Isolation of PBMCs

Once the blood is received at our lab from the local collection center, 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 human PBMCs are cryopreserved carefully using iQ Biosciences’ cryopreservation protocol that ensures high viability (> 90%) after thawing.

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

Quality Control Process

We implement random sampling per lot to test for viability and cell counts to ensure they meet specifications, which are recorded on the Certificate of Analysis that is included with each shipment. Cell counts are obtained using a manual hemocytometer and then cross-referenced with an automated cell counter. Each lot is also characterized for unique cell populations by immunophenotyping, in which the results are also recorded on the Certificate of Analysis.