Description

About the Marmota Monax Woodchuck

Woodchucks used for research purposes are mostly caught out in the wild and outbred.  Some are already infected with woodchuck herpes virus (WHV), while are others are not.  However, some commercial laboratories have established in-house woodchuck colonies.

WHV is an ideal model to study the pathogenesis and therapy of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis D virus (HDV), which makes woodchuck the most commonly used animal model for the study of these viruses.  Research on HBV using the WHV model focuses on disease and viral pathogenesis, in addition to prevention and treatment of HBV infection.

Similarly, toxicity studies for therapeutics against HBV and HDV are performed with woodchucks.   In addition, woodchucks are used in the study of hepatocellular carcinoma, in particular those driven by the hepatitis viruses.

Application Summary for Woodchuck PBMCs

Woodchuck PBMCs can be used for a wide variety of immunology-based applications. In-vitro immunoassays, such as proliferation, cytotoxicity, and cytokine release in response to hepatitis are commonly performed with woodchuck PBMCs.  Similarly, characterization of cell surface marker or mRNA transcriptional changes in PBMCs in response to hepatitis-infected target cells are performed using woodchuck PBMCs.  Finally, dendritic cells can be generated from these PBMCs to study the role of DCs in response to viral 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 woodchuck 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).