TruCulture Studies
Milieu Interieur in partnership with Myriad RBM performed pioneering work to standardize whole-blood syringe-based assay systems. TruCulture tube systems answers the need for the standardization of immunophenotyping procedures.
Link to our innovative study that used whole-blood, syringe-based assay systems to reproducibly assess induced innate or adaptive immune responses - Functional Analysis via Standardized Whole-Blood Stimulation Systems Defines the Boundaries of a Healthy Immune Response to Complex Stimuli.
A short description of the TruCulture system is below.
The TruCulture system
The complexity of the immune response is the result of the interplay between different immune cell types and the integration of different signaling pathways engaged in response to different stimuli. Responses to different stimuli can vary greatly between individuals and the identification of common patterns represent a great challenge.
The traditional in vitro method used to study the immune response to stimuli is peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) cultures. Using PBMC for in vitro stimulation has several limitations (link to study). Direct measurements made in whole blood have the advantages of minimizing sample handling and providing in vitro assay systems that preserve physiological cellular interactions.
This system is a point-of-care, syringe-based, whole blood assay that can be used to reproducibly assess induced immune responses eliminating pre-analytical errors as well as standardization and harmonization of results across different laboratories.
In comparison with traditional methods to study the immune response to stimuli, like in vitro cultures of PBMCs, the TruCulture system better reflects the complexity of the immune response in vivo as it maintains a more complete in vivo-like culture environments containing multiple cell types.
TruCulture is a syringe-based device in which exactly 1ml of blood is drawn directly in the tube pre-filled with cell culture medium and the stimulus of interest. After removing the plunger, the TruCulture tube is used as whole blood culture system incubated in a dry heat block onsite at 37°C for up to 48 hours. A valve is then inserted to manually separate the supernatant from the cells for subsequent downstream analysis.