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The influence of fixation and cryopreservation of cerebrospinal fluid on antigen expression and cell percentages by flow cytometric analysis

Introduction: Infections of the central nervous system (CNS) remain a major burden of disease. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is an essential sample for the investigation of CNS pathologies and flow cytometry enables detailed immunophenotyping of cells present in CSF.However, the pauci-cellular nature of...

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Main Author: Singh, Gabriela
Other Authors: Rohlwink, Ursula
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Human Biology 2023
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access_status_str Open Access
author Singh, Gabriela
author2 Rohlwink, Ursula
author_browse Rohlwink, Ursula
Singh, Gabriela
author_facet Rohlwink, Ursula
Singh, Gabriela
author_sort Singh, Gabriela
collection Thesis
description Introduction: Infections of the central nervous system (CNS) remain a major burden of disease. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is an essential sample for the investigation of CNS pathologies and flow cytometry enables detailed immunophenotyping of cells present in CSF.However, the pauci-cellular nature of CSF, and the rapid cell death following sampling, incumbers the use of flow cytometric analysis of these samples. Immediate processing and analysis of CSF for flow cytometry is not feasible in busy clinical environments where sample collection is unpredictable, and flow cytometers are not readily available. Therefore, developing a method to easily store CSF samples is highly desirable for clinically relevant research on CNS pathologies. Thus, the objective of this study was to examine 2 methods of long-term storage of CSF samples which ensured reliable measurement of cell percentages and relative proportion of cell subsets using flow cytometry. Aims: To examine percentages and relative proportion of subsets of selected peripheral leukocytes and brain derived cells in 1) cryopreserved CSF in comparison to freshly processed CSF, and 2) Transfix-treated CSF in comparison to freshly processed CSF. Method: CSF samples were prospectively collected and processed as follows 1) Freshwithin 24 hours (the current gold standard); 2) Cryopreserved- analysed after 1 month storage at..............Percentages of numerous white blood cell populations and brain-derived immune cells were analysed using flow cytometry and compared across these methods. The median fluorescent intensity of select markers was also compared across these methods. Results: The majority of cell percentages were not statistically significantly different between Fresh and Cryopreserved CSF, and cell proportions were comparable. Conversely, loss of marker expression of various lymphocyte sub-populations was observed in Transfixtreated CSF compared to Fresh, and certain cell populations could not be clearly distinguished in Transfix-treated CSF. Conclusion: Cryopreservation is a feasible option for long-term storage of CSF and allows quantification of cell percentages and immunophenotyping of peripheral and brain-derived cell populations by flow cytometry. This offers valuable opportunities for clinical research across a broad spectrum of CNS conditions (infectious and non-infectious). Further, this work highlights the potential to cryopreserve other surgical specimens for which the application of flow cytometry is currently limited by resource constraints and low cell counts.
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license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2023
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37270 The influence of fixation and cryopreservation of cerebrospinal fluid on antigen expression and cell percentages by flow cytometric analysis Singh, Gabriela Rohlwink, Ursula Figaji, Anthony Neuroscience Introduction: Infections of the central nervous system (CNS) remain a major burden of disease. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is an essential sample for the investigation of CNS pathologies and flow cytometry enables detailed immunophenotyping of cells present in CSF.However, the pauci-cellular nature of CSF, and the rapid cell death following sampling, incumbers the use of flow cytometric analysis of these samples. Immediate processing and analysis of CSF for flow cytometry is not feasible in busy clinical environments where sample collection is unpredictable, and flow cytometers are not readily available. Therefore, developing a method to easily store CSF samples is highly desirable for clinically relevant research on CNS pathologies. Thus, the objective of this study was to examine 2 methods of long-term storage of CSF samples which ensured reliable measurement of cell percentages and relative proportion of cell subsets using flow cytometry. Aims: To examine percentages and relative proportion of subsets of selected peripheral leukocytes and brain derived cells in 1) cryopreserved CSF in comparison to freshly processed CSF, and 2) Transfix-treated CSF in comparison to freshly processed CSF. Method: CSF samples were prospectively collected and processed as follows 1) Freshwithin 24 hours (the current gold standard); 2) Cryopreserved- analysed after 1 month storage at..............Percentages of numerous white blood cell populations and brain-derived immune cells were analysed using flow cytometry and compared across these methods. The median fluorescent intensity of select markers was also compared across these methods. Results: The majority of cell percentages were not statistically significantly different between Fresh and Cryopreserved CSF, and cell proportions were comparable. Conversely, loss of marker expression of various lymphocyte sub-populations was observed in Transfixtreated CSF compared to Fresh, and certain cell populations could not be clearly distinguished in Transfix-treated CSF. Conclusion: Cryopreservation is a feasible option for long-term storage of CSF and allows quantification of cell percentages and immunophenotyping of peripheral and brain-derived cell populations by flow cytometry. This offers valuable opportunities for clinical research across a broad spectrum of CNS conditions (infectious and non-infectious). Further, this work highlights the potential to cryopreserve other surgical specimens for which the application of flow cytometry is currently limited by resource constraints and low cell counts. 2023-03-06T12:58:47Z 2023-03-06T12:58:47Z 2022 2023-02-20T13:06:47Z Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37270 eng application/pdf Department of Human Biology Faculty of Health Sciences
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Singh, Gabriela
The influence of fixation and cryopreservation of cerebrospinal fluid on antigen expression and cell percentages by flow cytometric analysis
thesis_degree_str Master's
title The influence of fixation and cryopreservation of cerebrospinal fluid on antigen expression and cell percentages by flow cytometric analysis
title_full The influence of fixation and cryopreservation of cerebrospinal fluid on antigen expression and cell percentages by flow cytometric analysis
title_fullStr The influence of fixation and cryopreservation of cerebrospinal fluid on antigen expression and cell percentages by flow cytometric analysis
title_full_unstemmed The influence of fixation and cryopreservation of cerebrospinal fluid on antigen expression and cell percentages by flow cytometric analysis
title_short The influence of fixation and cryopreservation of cerebrospinal fluid on antigen expression and cell percentages by flow cytometric analysis
title_sort influence of fixation and cryopreservation of cerebrospinal fluid on antigen expression and cell percentages by flow cytometric analysis
topic Neuroscience
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37270
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