Publications

Is Fresh Really That Fresh? Time-Dependent Quality Loss in Live Specimens.

Lancaster & Magee et al. IO360 (2025)

In this study, we compared changes in cell count and cell population frequencies between fresh whole blood and whole blood fixed with TokuKit over time.
We observed the following results:
- Live processing of samples results in 49% loss in cell number within 72 hours.
- Cell loss is not uniformly distributed across cell populations.
  - Monocytes show a 87% reduction when processed live at 72 hours.
  - Neutrophils show a 48% reduction when processed live at 72 hours.
  - Rare lymphocyte subsets show a >25% change in frequency when processed live within 51 hours.
Coefficients of variation (CV) in major immune subset frequencies for inter-run, intra-run, and inter-kit precision showed that over 95% of immune populations had CVs <30% between replicates under all experimental conditions.
These findings address critical issues of stability and precision, which are crucial for large, multi-centered clinical studies and overcome the drawbacks associated with live sample collection in clinical studies.