DIFFERENTIAL MODULATION OF PHENOTYPIC COMPOSITION OF HIV-INFECTED AND -UNINFECTED PBMCS DURING CRYOPRESERVATION

Abstract

This article was designed to determine variations in phenotypic composition of fresh and frozen PBMCs for assessing utility of cryopreserved PBMCs for phenotypic assays. Relative percentages of effector memory cells increased significantly as against percentages of naïve cells which showed significant decrease after cryopreservation in HIV-uninfected samples. These differences were not significant in HIV-infected individuals. There was no significant difference in the expression of activation markers in fresh and frozen PBMCs except the HLA DR expression on CD8 cells in HIV-infected individuals, which was significantly decreased in frozen PBMCs. Thus, cryopreservation resulted in differential effect on phenotypic composition of PBMCs in HIV-infected and -uninfected individuals.

Keywords:

• cryopreservation
• PBMCS
• phenotype

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank the immunology laboratory staff and NARI clinic staff for their help during the experiments and recruiting patients in this study. We also thank the study participants for their time and participation. This study was supported by intra-mural funding from the Indian Council of Medical Research.