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Effects of blood transportation on human peripheral mononuclear cell yield, phenotype and function: implications for immune cell biobanking.

ABSTRACT: Human biospecimen collection, processing and preservation are rapidly emerging subjects providing essential support to clinical as well as basic researchers. Unlike collection of other biospecimens (e.g. DNA and serum), biobanking of viable immune cells, such as peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and/or isolated immune cell subsets is still in its infancy. While certain aspects of processing and freezing conditions have been studied in the past years, little is known about the effect of blood transportation on immune cell survival, phenotype and specific functions. However, especially for multicentric and cooperative projects it is vital to precisely know those effects. In this study we investigated the effect of blood shipping and pre-processing delay on immune cell phenotype and function both on cellular and subcellular levels. Peripheral blood was collected from healthy volunteers (n = 9): at a distal location (shipped overnight) and in the central laboratory (processed immediately). PBMC were processed in the central laboratory and analyzed post-cryopreservation. We analyzed yield, major immune subset distribution, proliferative capacity of T cells, cytokine pattern and T-cell receptor signal transduction. Results show that overnight transportation of blood samples does not globally compromise T- cell subsets as they largely retain their phenotype and proliferative capacity. However, NK and B cell frequencies, the production of certain PBMC-derived cytokines and IL-6 mediated cytokine signaling pathway are altered due to transportation. Various control experiments have been carried out to compare issues related to shipping versus pre-processing delay on site. Our results suggest the implementation of appropriate controls when using multicenter logistics for blood transportation aiming at subsequent isolation of viable immune cells, e.g. in multicenter clinical trials or studies analyzing immune cells/subsets. One important conclusion might be that despite changes due to overnight shipment, highly standardized central processing (and analysis) could be superior to multicentric de-central processing with more difficult standardization.

SUBMITTER: Posevitz-Fejfar A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4277394 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Effects of blood transportation on human peripheral mononuclear cell yield, phenotype and function: implications for immune cell biobanking.

Posevitz-Fejfár Anita A Posevitz Vilmos V Gross Catharina C CC Bhatia Urvashi U Kurth Frank F Schütte Verena V Bar-Or Amit A Meuth Sven G SG Wiendl Heinz H

PloS one 20141226 12

Human biospecimen collection, processing and preservation are rapidly emerging subjects providing essential support to clinical as well as basic researchers. Unlike collection of other biospecimens (e.g. DNA and serum), biobanking of viable immune cells, such as peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and/or isolated immune cell subsets is still in its infancy. While certain aspects of processing and freezing conditions have been studied in the past years, little is known about the effect of b ...[more]

PMID: 25541968

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Project description:Transportation of samples is essential for large-scale biobank projects. However, RNA degradation during pre-analytical operations prior to transportation can cause systematic bias in transcriptome data, which may prevent subsequent biomarker identification. Therefore, to collect high-quality biobank samples for expression analysis, specimens must be transported under stable conditions. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of RNA-stabilizing reagents to prevent RNA degradation during pre-analytical operations with an emphasis on RNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) to establish a protocol for reducing systematic bias. To this end, we obtained PBMCs from 11 healthy volunteers and analyzed the purity, yield, and integrity of extracted RNA after performing pre-analytical operations for freezing PBMCs at -80°C. We randomly chose 7 samples from 11 samples individually, and systematic bias in expression levels was examined by real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) experiments and data analysis. Our data demonstrated that omission of stabilizing reagents significantly lowered RNA integrity, suggesting substantial degradation of RNA molecules due to pre-analytical freezing. qRT-PCR experiments for 19 selected transcripts revealed systematic bias in the expression levels of five transcripts. RNA-Seq for 25,223 transcripts also suggested that about 40% of transcripts were systematically biased. These results indicated that appropriate reduction in systematic bias is essential in protocols for collection of RNA from PBMCs for large-scale biobank projects. Among the seven commercially available stabilizing reagents examined in this study, qRT-PCR and RNA-Seq experiments consistently suggested that RNALock, RNA/DNA Stabilization Reagent for Blood and Bone Marrow, and 1-Thioglycerol/Homogenization solution could reduce systematic bias. On the basis of the results of this study, we established a protocol to reduce systematic bias in the expression levels of RNA transcripts isolated from PBMCs. We believe that these data provide a novel methodology for collection of high-quality RNA from PBMCs for biobank researchers.

Project description:Same day processing of biospecimens such as blood is not always feasible, which presents a challenge for research programs seeking to study a broad population or to characterize patients with rare diseases. Recruiting sites may not be equipped to process blood samples and variability in timing and technique employed to isolate peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) at local sites may compromise reproducibility across patients. One solution is to send whole blood collected by routine phlebotomy via overnight courier to the testing site under ambient conditions. Determining the impact of shipping on subsequent leukocyte responses is a necessary prerequisite to any experimental analysis derived from transported samples. To this end, whole blood was collected from healthy control subjects and processed fresh or at 6, 24 and 48 h after collection and handling under modeled shipping conditions. At endpoint, whole blood was assessed via a complete blood count with differential and immunophenotyped using a standardized panel of antibodies [HLADR, CD66b, CD3, CD14, CD16]. PBMCs and neutrophils were isolated from whole blood and subjected to ex vivo stimulation with lipopolysaccharide and heat-killed Staphylococcus aureus. Stimulated release of cytokines and chemokines was assessed by cytometric bead array. RNA was also isolated from PBMCs to analyze transcriptional changes induced by shipping. The complete blood count with differential revealed that most parameters were maintained in shipped blood held for 24 h at ambient temperature. Immunophenotyping indicated preservation of cellular profiles at 24 h, although with broadening of some populations and a decrease in CD16 intensity on classical monocytes. At the transcriptional level, RNAseq analysis identified upregulation of a transcription factor module associated with inflammation in unstimulated PBMCs derived from whole blood shipped overnight. However, these changes were limited in both scale and number of impacted genes. Ex vivo stimulation of PBMCs further revealed preservation of functional responses in cells isolated from shipped blood held for 24 h at ambient temperature. However, neutrophil responses were largely abrogated by this time. By 48 h neither cell population responded within normal parameters. These findings indicate that robust immunophenotyping and PBMC stimulated response profiles are maintained in whole blood shipped overnight and processed within 24 h of collection, yielding results that are representative of those obtained from the sample immediately following venipuncture. This methodology is feasible for many patient recruitment sites to implement and allows for sophisticated immunological analysis of patient populations derived from large geographic areas. With regard to rare disease research, this meets a universal need to enroll patients in sufficient numbers for immunoprofiling and discovery of underlying pathogenic mechanisms.

Dataset Information

Effects of blood transportation on human peripheral mononuclear cell yield, phenotype and function: implications for immune cell biobanking.

Publications

Effects of blood transportation on human peripheral mononuclear cell yield, phenotype and function: implications for immune cell biobanking.

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