Undertaking chromium assays with the Hidex Sense Beta Plus

19 April 2016

Supporting all common scintillation assays and plates, such as LumaPlate®, filter plates, e.g. UniFilter™, Filtermats, FlashPlates®, Solid scintillators, e.g. MeltiLex® and Scintillation Proximity Assays, the Hidex Sense Beta Plus is a perfect platform for live cell studies. The Nichols laboratory, part of a major hospital in Memphis, recently purchased a Sense and has been using it extensively in their research work.

Based at the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Nichols laboratory focuses on identifying and studying genes that protect against cancer and viral infections, and on understanding how genetic defects in the immune system can contribute to disease. Current research areas in the lab include understanding the genetic underpinnings of immunological disorders, such as X-linked lymphoproliferative disease (XLP) and hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). Researchers there are also developing novel cell-based immunotherapies for cancer.

Katherine Verbist and Paige Tedrick, members of the Nichols laboratory, have been using the Hidex Sense Beta Plus in the course of their research into the role of cytotoxic lymphocytes in a variety of pathological states to better understand their therapeutic potential in combating infectious diseases, cancers, and cytokine-mediated disorders.

The Sense has been very useful in the research process, particularly for performing Cr51 Release Cytotoxicity Assays as Katherine explains: "NKT cells are a subset of T cells that coexpress an αβ T-cell receptor and a variety of NK markers. Invariant (i)NKT cells differ from conventional αβ T cells in that their T-cell receptors are far more limited in diversity, and they recognize lipids and glycolipids presented by CD1d molecules, rather than peptide-major histocompatibility complexes (MHCs). In the lab, we use target cells that express different levels of CD1d for our assays. Jurkat cells express a lot of CD1d and are therefore easily recognized and killed by iNKT cells. K562 cells, in contrast, express very little CD1d, therefore they are not easily recognised and killed by iNKT cells. We load the CD1d molecules on these targets with the lipid antigen alpha galactoceramide to further aid recognition and killing of the targets by the NKT cells. Overall, our lab is interested in finding ways to improve the expansion and killing capacities of iNKT cells to see if they can be exploited to kill cancer cells. The Cr51 release assay which we perform with the Sense Beta Plus allows us to measure how good the killing is under the different conditions imposed on the iNKT cells."

For further information about how the Hidex Sense Beta Plus can work for you, or a no obligation on site demonstration please contact Steve Lane on 314-717-6496 or e-mail slane@lablogic.com. In the UK please contact Anna Groom on 0114 266 7267 or e-mail agroom@lablogic.com