Impact of Long-Term Cryopreservation on Blood Immune Cell Markers in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome : Implications for Biomarker Discovery
Gomez, Elisabet (Institut Germans Trias i Pujol. Institut de Recerca de la Sida IrsiCaixa)
Carrillo, Jorge (Institut Germans Trias i Pujol. Institut de Recerca de la Sida IrsiCaixa)
Urrea, Víctor (Institut Germans Trias i Pujol. Institut de Recerca de la Sida IrsiCaixa)
Rigau, Josepa (Rigau Private Clinic, Tarragona)
Alegre Martín, José (Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron)
Cabrera Navarro, Cecilia (Institut Germans Trias i Pujol. Institut de Recerca de la Sida IrsiCaixa)
Oltra, Elisa (Universidad Católica de Valencia. Facultad de Medicina)
Castro-Marrero, Jesús (Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron. Institut de Recerca)
Blanco, Julià (Universitat de Vic - Universitat Central de Catalunya)

Date:	2020
Abstract:	Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is a complex neuroimmune disorder characterized by numerous symptoms of unknown etiology. The ME/CFS immune markers reported so far have failed to generate a clinical consensus, perhaps partly due to the limitations of biospecimen biobanking. To address this issue, we performed a comparative analysis of the impact of long-term biobanking on previously identified immune markers and also explored additional potential immune markers linked to infection in ME/CFS. A correlation analysis of marker cryostability across immune cell subsets based on flow cytometry immunophenotyping of fresh blood and frozen PBMC samples collected from individuals with ME/CFS (n = 18) and matched healthy controls (n = 18) was performed. The functionality of biobanked samples was assessed on the basis of cytokine production assay after stimulation of frozen PBMCs. T cell markers defining Treg subsets and the expression of surface glycoprotein CD56 in T cells and the frequency of the effector CD8 T cells, together with CD57 expression in NK cells, appeared unaltered by biobanking. By contrast, NK cell markers CD25 and CD69 were notably increased, and NKp46 expression markedly reduced, by long-term cryopreservation and thawing. Further exploration of Treg and NK cell subsets failed to identify significant differences between ME/CFS patients and healthy controls in terms of biobanked PBMCs. Our findings show that some of the previously identified immune markers in T and NK cell subsets become unstable after cell biobanking, thus limiting their use in further immunophenotyping studies for ME/CFS. These data are potentially relevant for future multisite intervention studies and cooperative projects for biomarker discovery using ME/CFS biobanked samples. Further studies are needed to develop novel tools for the assessment of biomarker stability in cryopreserved immune cells from people with ME/CFS.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Cryopreservation ; Immunophenotyping ; Immune biomarkers ; Myalgic encephalomyelitis ; Chronic fatigue syndrome ; Freeze-thaw process
Published in:	Frontiers in immunology, Vol. 11 (november 2020) , ISSN 1664-3224

DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.582330
PMID: 33329554

13 p, 1.5 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Health sciences and biosciences > Institut d'Investigació en Ciencies de la Salut Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles