lithium heparin vs sodium heparin which is better?

[rodriguezdosiky]

Hi All,
our lab has found over the years that our bloods specimens appear to
grows better when they are collected in sodium heparin. Although the
ones in Lithium also grow...we seem to have problems with poorer
growth. Is this others experiences? Ammonium Heparin is a disaster for
growth often resulting in a request for a repeat collections. If we
receive specimens in Lithium how should we proceed? All suggestions
appreciated.

THANK YOU to all last week about EB and "sticky" chromosomes...we are
seeing improvements!

[austriazoo]

we no longer see any difference in lithium and sodium heparin blood,
however in the old days the lithium heparin tubes may have been too
concentrated reducing growth. Ammonium heparin is toxic to cells and
you should immediately ask for a repeat sample you can try to save it
by washing the blood in warm culture medium containing heraprin at
least 3-5 times.

[trypanblue]

We have found no difference between Lithium and sodium heparin. If you
have I would change supplier.

[Cyto.Lab]

Hello All,

I'm new to this group but just saw this post:

Our lab noticed a difference in our bone marrow specimens when
changing from Lithium to Sodium heparin. This was mainly shown in
Pediatric ALL's as we participate in the COG study and need to
maintain a 50% abnormality finding rate. We found these specimens
performed much better with Sodium heparin over lithium and won't
accept these specimens with lithium. (Also an 'overnight colcemid'
culture was very helpful in observing the abnormality).

However, we do use lithium heparin in our congenital blood studies and
other bone marrow specimens and have not noticed a problem with
growth.

[oset...@umn.edu]

Does anyone have experience harvesting cultured dendritic cells for
cytogenetic analysis? I have not been able to obtain metaphases from these
6 and 8 day cultures.

[stuarthold]

This is our Conventional karyotyping method:
Cytogenetic studies were performed on heparin-anticoagulated
PB and/or Bone Marrow that had been cultured (DMEM 20% FCS)
(Invitrogen)
for 2 hours at 37ºC add 100 μL of
colcemid (10 μg/mL) (Invitrogen) or
for 24 hours after
stimulation with stem cell factor (SCF) and/or granulomonocytic-
colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) from Sigma Aldrich
or supplement the medium with 10% BMGS from Genial Genetic Solutions;
for these latter samples 100 μL of 10 μg/mL colcemid were
added 2 hours prior to harvesting the cells. Cultured
cells were fixed in methanol/acetic
acid at a ratio of 3/1 (vol/vol) — do this 5 times before making
slide.
Fixed cells were dropped
onto ethanol/ether cleaned slides and metaphases were
analyzed for G-banding.
We anaylse at least 20 metaphases.
ITs a difficult cell type you might have to try this several times.
Good Luck