title: Evaluation of four methods for separation of lymphocytes from normal individuals and patients with cancer and tuberculosis.
abstract: An optimal technique was sought for lymphocyte recovery from normal and chronic diseased individuals. Lymphocytes were separated by four techniques: Plasmagel, Ficoll--Hypaque, a commercial semiautomatic method, and simple centrifugation using blood drawn from ten normal individuals, ten cancer patients, and ten tuberculosis patients. The lymphocyte mixture obtained after using each method was analyzed for percent recovery, amount if contamination by erythrocytes and neutrophils, and percent viability. The results show that the semiautomatic method yielded the best percent recovery of lymphocytes for normal individuals, while the simple centrifugation method contributed the highest percent recovery for cancer and tuberculosis patients. The Ficoll-Hypaque method gave the lowest erythrocyte contamination for all three types of individuals tested, while the Plasmagel method gave the lowest neutrophil contamination for all three types of individuals. The simple centrifugation method yielded all viable lymphocytes and thus gave the highest percent viability.
mesh_terms: D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods*; D002470:Cell Survival; D002498:Centrifugation; D002499:Centrifugation, Density Gradient; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007822:Laryngeal Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology; D013736:Testicular Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology; D014062:Tongue Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000276:immunology*