questions about PBMCs study - (Jul/22/2013 )
Hi, I want to analyze if a stimulant could stimulate immune response from patients' peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). I have some questions here:
1. How should I testify if the immune response is activated? What parameters should I choose?
2. I see papers test cytokines. So I want to ask how should I choose which cytokines to test?
3. Besides cytoknies, some publications also include Cell proliferation assay. I tried BrdU kit but it doesn't work well. Is cell proliferation assay necessary?
I look forward for your suggestions. THANKS VERY MUCH!
(Warning - I'm not an immunologist, so may give not such good advice here)
Yes, cytokines (e.g. interleukins) would be appropriate to measure, as would T-cell or B-cell activation.
How to choose depends on what you are looking at - bacteria will produce a different response to viruses etc.
Cell proliferation could be a marker, I would go with MTT/MTS assays or a simple cell count (maybe by Flow cytometry) rather than BrdU.
bob1 on Tue Jul 23 10:01:08 2013 said:
(Warning - I'm not an immunologist, so may give not such good advice here)
Yes, cytokines (e.g. interleukins) would be appropriate to measure, as would T-cell or B-cell activation.
How to choose depends on what you are looking at - bacteria will produce a different response to viruses etc.
Cell proliferation could be a marker, I would go with MTT/MTS assays or a simple cell count (maybe by Flow cytometry) rather than BrdU.
Thanks! But cell proliferation is not quite realistic for me. Can I skip it? If so, should I do something else to supplement the cytokine analysis?
No idea, sorry. There is bound to be something else that can be done (migration assays perhaps?).