Handling and preservation of buffy coat isolated T cells for homologous
dendritic cell co-cultures
Abstract
The use of T cells is increasing both in healthcare and in research yet
the preservation methodologies for longer periods of times are yet to be
optimized. In order to overcome these issues, we have optimized a
protocol in sample handling and preservation of T cells in order to
perform a successful donor homologous co-culture with DCs and preserve
these cells for subsequent testing. This method will help in saving time
and effort as well as the ease of use for experiments requiring use of T
cells in mono or co-cultures. Handling and preservation of T cells using
our methodology showed stability and viability of these cells in
co-cultures. Data showed viability of >93% before and
after liquid nitrogen preservation. Moreover, preserved cells had no
unspecific activation which can be seen in unchanged expression of the T
cell activation marker CD25. T cell proliferation profile showed that
preserved T cells used in DC-T cell co-cultures (LPS stimulated DCs) had
the ability to interact and proliferate indicating potency of these
cells. This provides evidence of the efficiency of our handling and
preservation methodology in maintaining cell viability and stability.
Preserving donor T cells would facilitate reuse of these cells in donor
homologous co-cultures reducing inconvenience of multiple donations of
fresh blood and provides accessibility of the same population of T cells
for experiments that requires repetition, commercial availability of the
cells or for preservation of cells for clinical therapies such as
chimeric antigen receptor T cells.