Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) have the characteristics of concentrating various immune cells such as T cells, B cells, NK cells, monocytes, and dendritic cells while excluding large portions of blood such as RBCs, granulocytes and plasma. They are suitable for evaluation of rare cells like antigen-specific T cells, and long-term cryopreservation is possible. Because of these characteristics, they have attracted attention from their use in various applications such as immunological study and development of vaccines.
In general, PBMC are separated and collected from fresh blood by density-gradient centrifugation. Layering blood on density solutions and collecting/washing separated PBMC are performed manually and require a high level of skill to obtain PBMC of high quality and homogeneity. Adequate staff organization for minimizing the duration between blood collection and PBMC isolation is necessary to obtain PBMC that reflects the in-vivo conditions as closely as possible. These points are critical to obtain correct analytical results from studies using PBMC.
Mediford Corporation has a long track record of commissions for PBMC separations in clinical trials. We pick up blood samples from study sites, and highly skilled researchers conduct the PBMC isolation process at the GLP laboratory located in Itabashi, Tokyo. In addition to the standard process, we can utilize other simpler isolation devices such as Vacutainer CPT by BD, Leucosep tube by Greiner, SepMate by STEMCELL Technologies.
With isolated PBMC, we can conduct analysis by flow cytometry, ELISpot, and qPCR. In addition, we can conduct long-term storage (-80℃, -150℃, liquid nitrogen) for future studies. An example of our analytical services using PBMC is shown below.
