What you need to know about choosing peripheral blood mononuclear cells for your research and development projects
What are PBMCs?
Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) are key components of the body’s immune system. PBMCs are typically isolated from whole blood by apheresis and used for a variety of downstream applications, such as feeder cells and starting material for further purification of specific cell types for research and the development of cell immunotherapy products.
Choosing the right PBMCs for downstream applications depends on their intended use, whether for clinical starting material or research studies
While PBMCs have been a great tool for immunology research and as starting material for production of various cell immunotherapies, there is variability in typical PBMC product quality attributes, such as RBC contamination, granulocyte levels and post-cryoprocessing viability and expansion potential. Of even greater concern are more recent studies that have shown that immune-related attributes related to overall potency, which includes effector function potential, metabolic fitness, memory potential and expansion potential vary significantly across different healthy donors. These are key issues to consider when using healthy donor PBMCs for research and clinical applications as the parameters related to effector function, metabolic fitness and memory potential have been shown to correlate with clinical responses or lack thereof. Similarly, irradiated PBMC cells which can be used as feeder cells for immune cell expansion of TILs or other cell types, can vary in their cell expansion potential, having significant effects on manufacturing yields and cost of goods.
Choosing the Right PBMCs
Choosing the right PBMCs for downstream applications depends on their intended use, whether for clinical starting material or research studies. At Excellos, we offer irradiated and non-irradiated PBMCs as well as immune cell subsets derived from our PBMCs, including CD4, CD8, CD3, gamma/delta T cells and NK cell-enriched fractions for research use and clinical development.
- X-Irradiated PBMCs are non-proliferative viable cells that can still produce various metabolites and cytokines used to stimulate the proliferation and activation of non-irradiated immune cells such as T cells, NK cells and Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TILs).
- Non-irradiated PBMCs can be used as starting material to manufacture a variety of cancer immunotherapies, such as Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T, NK, and iNKT therapies. Researchers also use PBMCs in the study of autoimmune disorders, vaccine research, antibody production, hematological malignancies, infectious diseases, graft-versus host disease (GVHD) and cancer immunotherapy and more.
A key aspect in choosing the right PBMC source relates to the high variability in functional aspects of the cells. Typically, this information is missing in some PBMC products. Excellos is unique in that it has addressed this issue by carrying out functional assays on the effector potential, metabolic fitness and memory potential of healthy donor PBMC products. Excellos can supply this data to researchers and cell therapy developers that wish to access these products as well as for the immune cell subsets we isolate from our PBMC preparation. This data can help assure production of cell therapies with greater potency and consistency.
By choosing the right PBMCs you can help to ensure that your downstream research and product development results are potent, consistent and relevant
Excellos irradiated PBMC feeder cells are obtained by apheresis of healthy donors in our FDA-registered donor center and are offered as cryopreserved RUO or cGMP-grade feeder cell products. All donors (collected under IRB-approved consent) undergo testing for infectious diseases with common blood-borne pathogens and viruses including RPR, HIV, LCMV, and HVC. Excellos’ feeder cell donors can also be characterized (functionally, phenotypically and metabolically). Apheresis collections from healthy donors are isolated to PBMCs and cryopreserved under cGMP guidelines.
By choosing the right type of PBMCs you can help to ensure that your downstream research and product development results are potent, consistent and relevant to the desired characteristics of a preferred donor source material. The irradiated and non-irradiated PBMCs produced by Excellos are sourced from the highest quality leukopacks and are available for research use only (RUO) or cGMP compliant.
For more information check out our catalog or contact us to speak with one of our experts to ensure you choose the right product for your application.
