Application Note: Streck Cell Preservative Preserves Bone Marrow Specimens

Leukemias and lymphomas are cancers of the blood and lymphatic systems. Flow cytometry analysis of the white blood cells from bone marrow aspirates is used to diagnose these conditions. Bone marrow is the soft tissue that resides within some of the larger bones and its function is to produce blood cells. Bone marrow testing is performed because it is more likely that abnormal white blood cells will be found in the bone marrow than in the bloodstream. The proportion of white blood cells that are abnormal is also important for diagnosis.

A bone marrow specimen is a difficult sample to retrieve and requires a skilled healthcare professional to obtain the specimen. These samples must be analyzed by the flow cytometry facility immediately, requiring technologists to be on-call to process samples over the weekend. Flow cytometry laboratories have a general panel of Cluster of Differentiation (CD) markers indicative of leukemia or lymphoma used for the flow cytometry assay. After reviewing these results, the physician may require a more specific panel of CD-markers in order to properly diagnose the disease.

Streck Cell Preservative is a cellular preservative and transport reagent that stabilizes the cell-surface antigens on white blood cells for immunophenotyping by flow cytometry. Additionally, Streck Cell Preservative is easy to use and only requires a 1:1 (v/v) sample to reagent dilution. A bone marrow aspirate can be preserved in Streck Cell Preservative until the technologist has adequate time to process the sample for flow cytometry. The data presented in this technical communication illustrate the utility of Streck Cell Preservative to stabilize the immune epitopes on the white blood cells in bone marrow specimens.