After a cell culture experiment, how can I store my cells to undergo ELISA later on? Is it better to store the cells in 0.9% NaCl saline or to store them as a pellet. Also at -80 C or -20 C?
You can't store them with 0.9 %NaCL. You have to use freezing medium( RPMI+FCS+DMSO)
You can lyse the cells and prepare them, then freeze them. It is best to use protease inhibitors and store at -80 unless you are able to run the analyses within a few days. Be sure to lyze on ice or colder or put into alcohol/dry ice immediately to freeze. (e.g. alcohol/dry ice). If you centrifuge to remove debris, be sure to use a refrigerated centrifuge. There may be species differences. Also, there are differences that relate to the cell site. For instance, membrane proteins, cytosol, mitochondrial, or nuclear proteins require different methods. The best thing to do is to find a highly cited article relating to the proteins of interest to you and use whatever method they use.
Here is an article.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2729484/
If you preserve cells, you will need to use freezing medium as noted above. In that case, use a slow freezing method. Usually it would be better to lyse the cells and save the lysate.
I am agree with Lillian, you can store at -196 for more long time.
Hi, samples for ELISA you should always treat as proteins.
Depending on your sample size you can harvest the cells and store them as cell pellets in -80C or liqN2.
However, depending on what you are looking for i.e. which cell compartments your protein of interest is located, (i.e. nuclear, membrane) then you can perform the protein extraction with the relevant buffer (including protease/phosphatase inhibitors). After that you treat the samples as proteins and store accordingly.
If you go for the protein remember to store the samples in aliquots to prevent repeated freeze/thaw.
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