Novel Method for Sample Processing

描述(由申请人提供)：开发改进的样品制备和生物样本存储程序对于诊断人类疾病，特别是癌症至关重要，因为癌症的阳性细胞很少。最近在宫颈标本的制备和存储方面的改进导致了宫颈癌筛查的灵敏度和准确性的显著提高。虽然重要，但在其他生物标本(如细针抽吸物或其他活组织检查材料)的样品准备、处理和储存方面几乎没有改进。与标本处理相关的问题包括细胞丢失和细胞聚集。用于细胞内免疫表型鉴定的常规生物标本处理条件(如固定和渗透)导致的样品丢失是一个有充分证据的现象。如果样本有限，或者感兴趣的细胞很少，细胞丢失是阻碍研究、诊断、患者监测和临床研究的一个重大问题。这项SBIR旨在开发一种简单的程序，以减少与样品处理和细胞内免疫表型鉴定相关的细胞损失，以及细胞聚集。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Development of improved procedures for sample preparation and storage of biological specimens are critical for diagnosis of human diseases, particularly cancer, for which positive cells are rare. Recent improvements in sample preparation and storage of cervical specimens led to significant increase in sensitivity and accuracy of cervical cancer screening. Although important, there have been few improvements in sample preparation, handling and storage of other biological specimens (e.g. fine needle aspirates or other biopsy materials). Problems associated with specimen handling include cell loss and cell clumping. Sample loss resulting from conventional biological specimen processing conditions such as fixation and permeabilization, used for intracellular immunophenotyping, is a well documented phenomenon. If the sample is limited, or cells of interest are rare, cell loss is a significant problem hampering research, diagnosis, patient monitoring, and clinical studies. This SBIR aims to develop a simple procedure to reduce cell loss associated with sample processing and intracellular immunophenotyping, as well as cell clumping.