Cryopreservation of lymphocytes for immunological studies in horses

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ABSTRACT: The use of frozen cells allows studies on diseases and other immunological assays, since it facilitates the logistics of collecting and transporting, including laboratories located in different cities or other countries. The objectives of this study were to verify if the storage in the refrigerator after collection at different times changes the viability of total leukocytes after months of freezing and the ratio of CD4/CD8 is affected by the freezing process. Venous blood of 15 healthy horses was used and the experiment was divided into 2 stages. In the first, the viability of the leukocytes before and after freezing was verified, as well as different storage times in the refrigerator (fresh blood, stored for 24 and 48 hours) before the freezing process. In the second part, the immunophenotyping of the T lymphocytes was performed, in order to observe if after thawing the relationship between LT CD4 and LT CD8 undergoes change. There was no difference between the amounts of viable leucocytes from frozen fresh blood compared to fresh blood before freezing, nor difference between the viability of blood left in the refrigerator (4°C) for 24 hours and fresh blood and fresh frozen blood. There was a decrease in viability of frozen leukocytes after 48 hours left in the freezer for other samples; however, the recovery was 107x cells. Regarding the immunophenotyping of CD2CD4+ and CD2CD8+ double-labeled T lymphocytes in the blood stored in the refrigerator for 24 hours before freezing, no difference was observed between before and after 6 months of freezing. It is concluded that cryopreservation of equine total leukocytes is possible and, although there was a difference between freezing times, even in the less viable sample, sufficient numbers of cells were recovered for other immunological assays.