Description

About the Wistar Rat

The Wistar rat is one of the two most routinely-used albino rat strains in biomedical research. They are commonly used in many fields of research, including oncology, aging, pharmacology, toxicology, and metabolism/nutrition. They are also used in immunology as models for infectious diseases and autoimmune responses. Depending on the parameters of your experiments, cells from Wistar rats (like Wistar rat PBMCs) may offer experimental advantages.

Application Summary for Wistar Rat PBMCs

Rat 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, rat 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 rat 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).