Restricted to Allina inpatients

Two (2) Dk green Sodium heparin (Na hep), no gel

• Collect Monday – Thursday only
• Sample must be collected close to transport pick up time (do not collect before noon)
• Immediately following collection, mix sample thoroughly by gently inverting 8 - 10, times to prevent clotting.

• Transport whole blood in original collection tubes
• Do not refrigerate or freeze

 Dk green Sodium heparin (Na hep), no gel

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital DIL requisition

Ambient (strict) – 28 hours

Specimen must be transported to the Allina Health Central Laboratory, in a STAT bag, on the day of collection. Specimen must arrive at AHL by 2:00 pm to facilitate shipping to the performing laboratory. 

• Frozen, clotted, hemolyzed or centrifuged specimens.
• Specimens in anticoagulants other than Sodium Heparin.
• Specimens received greater than 24 hours after collection.

Chromium Release

Natural Killer (NK) cells are a subset of cytotoxic lymphocytes that have the ability to induce cell death in tumor cells or in virally infected cells. NK cells play a crucial role in the homeostasis of the immune system. They are typically characterized by the expression of CD16 and CD56 on their cell surface.

This assay makes use of the fact that NK cells will lyse the human erythroleukemia cell line, K562, in vitro. K562 cells are loaded with radioactive chromium and incubated with various ratios of a mononuclear cell preparation. Lysis of the K562 targets by NK cells contained in the cell preparation is measured by the amount of chromium released into the supernatant.