Nordic BioSite TransFix® transforms Lymph Node Stabilisation

This is significant in allowing a wider window for the performance of lymph node flow cytometry, which is a key tool in immunology and oncology.

Key to lymph node biopsies

Lymph nodes, an important part of the immune system, are small, oval-shaped organs found close to the stomach, intestines, and lungs and commonly noted in the armpits, groin, and neck.

Lymph node biopsies such as fine needle aspirations or open biopsies are often performed to confirm suspected lymphomas (for example, Hodgkin’s lymphoma), or to determine if secondary tumors may have spread from other sites (for example in metastatic breast cancer). Cells from these biopsies can then be disaggregated and analyzed by flow cytometry.

Time critical

Previous research (Darzynkiewicz et al., 2011) has confirmed that time is critical for the enumeration of cells from lymph node biopsies and other solid tissue via flow cytometry, because cells and cellular antigens degrade quickly ex vivo.

“Therefore, immunophenotyping historically had to be performed as quickly as possible,” says Nordic BioSite.

“TransFix has been used to stabilize cellular antigens and increase cell yields within fine needle aspirations and other lymph nodes biopsies. This allows immunophenotyping by flow cytometry to be conducted at a time that is more convenient to the operator,” the company points out.

Preventing cellular degradation

TransFix® is a cellular antigen stabilisation solution developed by UK-based Cytomark, a division of Caltag Medsystems Ltd., which is dedicated to the development of cell stabilization reagents for use in flow cytometry.

It prevents cellular degradation in a variety of specimen types for flow cytometric analysis and can also be applied to stabilization of human or animal blood, cerebrospinal fluid, bone marrow or circulating tumor cells.

Independent research studies have successfully used TransFix® to stabilize cells from lymph node biopsies, including fine needle aspirations.

Nordic BioSite can supply TransFix in 1 and 20ml aliquot sizes and in pack sizes of 10 and 50 1ml tubes to give end-user more flexibility in application of TransFix to research samples.

Reference

Darzynkiewicz, Z. et al. (2011). Recent advances in cytometry, Part B: Advances in Applications. Volume 103 of Methods in Cell Biology 5th ed. Amsterdam: Academic Press.

About Nordic BioSite

Since the late 1990s, Nordic BioSite has become recognized as one of the pharma industry’s most innovative and customer-responsive supplier of high quality validated biotechnology products for research, diagnostics, immunology and molecular biology.

The company serves pharmaceutical, biotech, diagnostic and academic organizations with tens of thousands of different products in more than 30 different groups, ranging from antibodies to genetic vectors. These are sourced from selected manufacturers and laboratories in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

Nordic BioSite continuously introduces new products as a result of its own R&D, leveraged by close partnerships with manufacturers and feedback from customers.

Nordic BioSite’s company strapline, By Your Side™, defines a company ethos of partnering life science customers h, helping to find the right products and services to help reach chosen goals across the whole spectrum of biotech research areas.

Nordic BioSite also operates as a CRO through its Finnish-based cGLP laboratory, BioSiteHisto. This offers a wide range of leading-edge research-based custom laboratory services including histology, immunochemistry, in vitro research and testing, antibody optimization, antibody conjugation and predesigned adenylated linkers for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS).