How TruCulture Works
TruCulture tubes are pre-loaded with cell culture media and immune stimulant(s) or drug candidates. Blood is drawn directly into the TruCulture tube and incubated in a dry heat block. Supernatants are collected by simply inserting a valve separator to separate cells from the culture supernatant.

01. COLLECT
Draw 1 mL of blood directly into the TruCulture Tube and break off the plunger.

02. MIX
Place tube in 37ºC heat block for up to 48 hours. (typically 24 hours)

02. INCUBATE
Manually insert valve to separate supernatant from the cells.

02. SEPARATE
Collect supernatant and analyze for secreted proteins.
Applications
TruCulture has been utilized as a whole-blood stimulation system by researchers and drug developers in several fields to reliably measure immune response for the following applications.
- Pharmacodynamics (including dose response)
- Functional immune cell analysis
- Disease characterization
- Patient stratification
- Genotype – to – Phenotype association studies
PBMCs vs. TruCulture
Traditional pharmacodynamic whole blood experiments are generally short in duration (2-6 hrs) as a consequence of poor culture conditions leading to premature termination of the normal physiological immune response. A longer more robust response usually provides higher sensitivity and greater relevance than short incubation times that may only lead to the release of stored pre-synthesized mediators.
Advantages of TruCulture
- Integrated closed sterile instant whole blood collection and culture system.
- Standardized to ensure consistent performance across multiple users and clinical sites.
- Reliable, easy to use, and reproducible – eliminates the need for cell manipulation.
- Retains all blood components, granulocytes, platelets, red blood cells, soluble factors and Fc receptor expressing cells.
- Only inexpensive heat block needed, no lab equipment nor centrifugation steps.
- Has been successfully deployed in hundreds of clinical drug trials.
Disadvantages of PBMCs
- Separate blood collection and specialized cell culture procedures.
- Extensive manipulation, processing, and often freezing/shipping prior to culturing.
- Requires technical expertise with increased variability across users and clinical sites.
- Requires CO2 incubator, biosafety cabinet, centrifuge, media, and cell culture plastics.
- Culture procedures/conditions are difficult to standardize for clinical trial applications.
- Open, less sterile, artificial system.
- Poor reproducibility.

Learn why TruCulture Whole Blood Culture System is a more relevant model of human leukocyte function than the traditional method of cultured PBMCs.
TruCulture Webinars
Measuring Antigen Recall to SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein with TruCulture
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Investigating Immune Response with TruCulture & NanoString nCounter
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A Reproducible Immunomonitoring Method for Multi-Center Clinical Studies
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