Freezing blood cells

Using peripheral blood mononuclear cells in an experiment can present a bit of a challenge. Ideally, one should use fresh blood cells; however, it's not always possible to extract this blood as needed, and it certainly won't stay fresh forever. Not to mention that using samples that were taken from different blood draws creates obvious problems, even when they are taken from the same donor.

Cryopreservation is the key. The challenge is to freeze the cells in a way that yields high recovery rates, i.e., where you don't lose too many cells. In addition, one needs to guarantee that the cells remain productive.

Specialized PBMC cryopreservation techniques are available to suit these purposes. They require the use of serum-free cell culture media, among other things, to achieve the required post-thaw productivity and viability.