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Updated on Oct 16, 2024 Share

Sample preparation is often a critical first step in any number of life science workflows. Due to the inherent complexity within samples and diversity between applications, sample preparation needs can vary widely. One common first step is a “cleanup” step to deplete residual red blood cells (RBCs) from the sample before proceeding with downstream analysis. Once the RBCs have been depleted, the resulting blood product can be used across many …

Updated on Sep 26, 2024 Share

High Throughput Human T Cell Enrichment The field of immunological research is continuously expanding. More and more things are being discovered on a cellular and molecular level. Cell separation and enrichment has become an integral part of studying our immune cell behaviors. One of the most significant challenges in the research community has been finding a high throughput T cell enrichment method that can be used to isolate high volumes …

Updated on Aug 21, 2023 Share

Mouse B Cell Enrichment: How to Culture Isolated Mouse B Cells The primary function of B cells is antibody production. They are called B cells because they mature in the bone marrow, while T cells mature in the thymus. Receptors on the surface of a B cell bind to foreign antigens and develop antibodies that suppress that specific pathogen. Understanding more about how B cells work can provide insight into …

Updated on Mar 7, 2024 Share

T cells are known as the guardians of our immune system, initiating and maintaining our defense against infections and diseases. While there are many types of T cells, regulatory T cells, or Tregs, have the unique ability to keep balance in the immune system. Tregs help ensure that our bodies react effectively against pathogens while preventing excessive or misdirected immune responses that can lead to autoimmune diseases. Tregs serve as …

Updated on Nov 29, 2023 By Dominique Badea, PhD Share

Over the past few decades, technologies like flow cytometry and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) have revolutionized our understanding and manipulation of cell populations. Since their inception, there have been significant advancements and applications, from clinical diagnosis to biomedical research, propelling a new era of cellular analysis and handling. The terms flow cytometry and FACS are often used interchangeably. However, this is not accurate. Namely, FACS is a subtype of flow …

Updated on Dec 9, 2024 Share

CTC Separation When a cancerous tumor is present in the human body, some of the tumor cells can be shed into blood or lymph vessels, where they travel through the bloodstream alone or in clusters. These cells are called circulating tumor cells (CTCs). Scientists can collect these cells for research purposes through a process called CTC separation. CTC separation is the process of CTC isolation from whole blood samples. Residual …

Updated on Dec 9, 2024 Share

Spleen Cell Isolation Just as a gold mine has different areas with higher concentrations of gold, different parts of the body have different levels of T cells. In a mouse, the spleen cell culture is composed of around 100 million splenocytes. Splenocytes are mononuclear white blood cells (WBCs) derived from or situated in the spleen. T cells typically comprise roughly 25% of the total splenocyte population. While murine (relating to …

Updated on Aug 12, 2024 Share

What are CD4 Cells? The human immune system is broken down into two major categories: the innate immune system and the adaptive immune system. The innate immune system is comprised of different physical, chemical, and cellular responses to pathogens that jump into action, offering general and non-specific first line defense when the immune system is called to act in an effort to contain the spread of pathogens. The adaptive immune …

Updated on Dec 9, 2024 Share

Cell Separation Using Magnetic Beads Due to a constant demand for enriched cell samples, there are a variety of methods used to isolate and extract target cells from a mixture. One of the more common techniques is magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS). MACS uses magnetic beads and a magnetic separation column to perform cell enrichment. MACS The goal of MACS, also called immunomagnetic cell separation, is to isolate a single cell …

Updated on Dec 23, 2024 Share

What Is a Buffy Coat? A buffy coat is a mix of lymphocytes, monocytes, granulocytes, and platelets, isolated from plasma and RBCs by centrifugation. In a sample of peripheral whole blood, less than 1% of the cells are white blood cells (WBCs) and platelets. When researchers put the sample through a centrifuge, a machine that spins the blood, those WBCs and platelets combine to form their own layer suspended between the red blood …