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Never place tissue in formalin or other preservatives.
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Do not collect tissue using heparin.
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Do not place any tissue in heparinized containers, or tubes with heparin solution
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Do not use heparin when collecting CT- or ultrasound-guided aspirates, core biopsies, FNA specimens or bone marrow.
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Do not put core biopsies in OCT
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Tissue blocks cannot be used to manufacture vaccine.
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Except for peripheral blood, all specimens should be kept cold (either on 'wet' or dry ice) to prevent RNA degradation.
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If transporting a specimen on 'wet' ice, cover fresh tissue with normal saline to reduce RNA degradation.
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Freshly excised lymph nodes (LN) are the preferred tissue. Tissue should be immediately placed in an appropriate container (tight screw top) of normal saline and shipped on 'wet' ice.
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Amount of LN tissue required to manufacture vaccine:
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minimum dimension of ~ 0.3 cm
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2-3 smaller specimens are better than one large sample, but avoid creating 'diced' specimens.
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Excisional lymph nodes should be less than or equal to 1.0 gram.
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Collect core biopsies using an 1-14 gauge needle to yield a core biopsy ~0.2 cm in diameter by at least 1 cm in length.
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Core biopsy snap freezing must occur immediately to freeze the tissue solid to prevent RNA degradation.
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Immediately place in a container and placing on dry ice until frozen solid (~ 10 minutes), or
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Immediately place in liquid nitrogen for ~ 20 seconds or, in ultra low temperature freezer (-80 C) for ~ 10 minutes.
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Fine Needle aspirates:
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provide 2-3 aspirates (.1 - .2 cc each) in separate containers.
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number aspirates in order of collection.
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bloody aspirates are unlikely to yield adequate RNA.
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Bone marrow and other core biopsies
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Peripheral blood must display an absolute lymphocyte count of 5 x 106 cells/mL by manual differential. 7-10 mL of blood is needed, collected in EDTA tubes (purple tops).