title: EBV Immortalization of human B lymphocytes separated from small volumes of cryo-preserved whole blood.
abstract: EBV immortalized B lymphocyte cell lines have been extensively used as a source of biological material for functional and molecular studies and represent a potentially limitless source of genomic DNA. Current technologies for EBV transformation are costly and use relatively large volumes of peripheral blood. Alternative methods were examined to determine whether smaller volumes of cryo-preserved whole blood could be subsequently transformed and which could provide a more cost-effective strategy for large population-based studies such as UK Biobank. A successful method was established where viable B cells were positively selected from 0.5 ml cryo-preserved whole blood samples. These were EBV transformed in microtitre plates and subsequently expanded in culture. A pilot study within UK Biobank was performed, which confirmed its potential usefulness for this study.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Integrated Genomic Medical Research, The University of Manchester, Stopford Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, UK.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Amoli
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Carthy
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Platt
authors.forename: W E R
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Ollier
mesh_terms: D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000502:physiology* / Q000821:virology; D018070:Biological Specimen Banks; D002461:Cell Line, Transformed; D002472:Cell Transformation, Viral; D015925:Cryopreservation; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D010865:Pilot Projects; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D006113:United Kingdom