Effects of Cryopreservation and Thawing on Single-Cell Transcriptomes of Human T Cells
- Author:
Jeong Seok LEE
1
;
Kijong YI
;
Young Seok JU
;
Eui-Cheol SHIN
Author Information
- Publication Type:Brief Communication
- From:Immune Network 2020;20(4):e34-
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:0
- Abstract: Cryopreservation and thawing of PBMCs are inevitable processes in expanding the scale of experiments in human immunology. Here, we carried out a fundamental study to investigate the detailed effects of PBMC cryopreservation and thawing on transcriptomes. We sorted Tregs from fresh and cryopreserved/thawed PBMCs from an identical donor and performed single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq). We found that the cryopreservation and thawing process minimally affects the key molecular features of Tregs, including FOXP3. However, the cryopreserved and thawed sample had a specific cluster with up-regulation of genes for heat shock proteins. Caution may be warranted in interpreting the character of any cluster of cells with heat shock-related properties when cryopreserved and thawed samples are used for scRNA-seq.
