Hi Sara,

Your question is really two parts. Do leukocytes survive freeze-thawing and, if so, how long will they remain viable after storage at -80C before thawing?

Cultured cells frozen in 10% DMSO and stored at -80C will lose viability rapidly after 24 hours such that very few will survive storage at this temperature after a week. Granulocytes, i.e., neutrophils, eosinophils, and basophils will probably fare quite poorly even if they are frozen and then immediately thawed. Granulocyte degranulation is very easily triggered by a large range of stimuli and it will result in complete cell lysis. Agranulocytes like monocytes and lymphocytes may survive freeze-thawing better, but will still be unlikely to remain viable longer than a week at -80C. Special storage media such as that used in blood banking may prolong this time.

Because of their fragility, leukocyte studies almost always use freshly isolated cells. The damage resulting from freeze-thawing alone is likely to dramatically alter the behavior of most types of leukocytes. Increasing lengths of storage at -80C will further complicate the situation.

I don't know how much of this type of information is published, but systematic studies have probably been done. My comments above are based on experience, so they could be wrong. If you are interested in this, the experiments are quite straight forward. I would encourage you to do them if there is insufficient published literature bearing on the subject.

Good luck,

RW