A comparison of methods used for the separation of fish lymphocytes

Abstract

A comparison is made of methods currently used in separating mammalian lymphocytes from whole blood when adapted for use with fish blood. The methods give good results but do require minor modifications. The use of Ficoll‐Paque, although requiring greater expertise, did result in obtaining good recovery rates of lymphocytes in a viable condition. The separation of cells without the addition of agents other than culture medium, while resulting in good yields of lymphocytes, was much more variable and did not result in the separation of such a pure cell line. The other methods compared were found to be unsuitable for fish blood.