Description

About the Marmota Monax Woodchuck

Woodchucks used for research purposes are mostly caught out in the wild and outbred, which can be infected with woodchuck herpes virus (WHV). In contrast, some commercial laboratories have established in-house woodchuck colonies in order to maintain a consistent supply of woodchuck. While convenient, establishing and maintaining on-site animal facilities can be resource consuming, and as a feasible alternative, there are external sources that provide frozen animal cells.

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 in woodchucks.
Additionally, since HBV can drive the development of hepatocellular carcinoma, woodchucks are a commonly used model to study this type of cancer.

Application Summary for Woodchuck Splenocytes

Woodchuck splenocytes 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 splenocytes. Similarly, characterization of cell surface marker or mRNA transcriptional changes in response to hepatitis-infected target cells are performed using woodchuck splenocytes.

Isolation of Splenocytes

Woodchuck spleen is obtained from responsible facilities that have many years of experience collecting biospecimens. More importantly, the spleen is processed within 24 hours of tissue isolation at iQ’s facility.
Once at our facility, the splenic tissue is carefully dissociated through a gentle mechanical process to generate a single cell suspension under sterile conditions. The suspension is then carefully passed through a filter to remove any fat and/or connective tissue and subsequently depleted of red blood cells in a manner that is not damaging to the other cells. The purified splenocytes are then frozen based on iQ Biosciences’ quality-controlled cryopreservation protocol to promote recoverability and viability once in the end user’s hands.

Cryopreservation and Storage

Our woodchuck splenocytes are cryopreserved carefully using iQ Biosciences’ cryopreservation protocol that ensures high viability (> 70%) after thawing.

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