Hello Erica Weber

Isolating plasma cells from peripheral blood is challenging due to their low frequency. Plasma cells are primarily found in tissues like bone marrow, lymph nodes, and spleen. Nevertheless, CD138 magnetic beads are a common and effective method for their enrichment. Plasma cells express high levels of CD138 on their surface. Anti-CD138 antibodies are conjugated to magnetic beads. These beads are then mixed with the peripheral blood sample. The beads bind specifically to the CD138 expressed on plasma cells. The sample is then passed through a magnetic column or used in a magnetic separator.

The beads, and thus the attached plasma cells, are retained in the magnetic field, while other blood cells (like the erythrocytes, platelets, etc.) pass through. The retained plasma cells are then released and collected for further analysis.

There are several commercially available kits that utilize CD138, which is highly expressed on plasma cells, to isolate these cells from blood samples. These kits often employ magnetic bead-mediated separation or enrichment techniques. Some kits, like those from Miltenyi Biotec and Stem Cell Technologies, are specifically designed for isolation from whole blood or PBMCs.

Best,

Malcolm Nobre Thank you for your detailed explanation regarding CD138+ plasma cell isolation.

I’ve looked into the kits from StemCell Technologies and Miltenyi Biotec, but I noticed their products are primarily validated for isolating CD138+ cells from tissues like spleen, bone marrow, and lymph nodes.

I couldn’t find a kit explicitly designed for isolating CD138+ cells directly from peripheral blood. Could you point me toward a specific product optimized for blood samples, or would you recommend adapting one of the existing kits for this purpose?

Are you wanting to isolate ASC (antibody-secreting cells) to high purity...or do you only want to quantify their abundance and evaluate antigen specificity?

Hi Greg A Kirchenbaum, I wanna do both - isolate the plasma cells first, then after culturing them, check the antibody levels in the supernatant