Question: Are fresh-frozen tissue samples compatible with Single Cell RNA sequencing?
Answer: If it is not feasible to process fresh tissue, fresh-frozen tissue samples can be used for Single Cell RNA sequencing. Before freezing, the tissue should be dissociated into a single cell suspension. Cells can then be frozen in a suitable freezing medium. If the tissue is frozen whole, it is more challenging to isolate viable single cells after thawing.
When freezing cells, we recommend starting with at least 1 million total cells to recover sufficient numbers post-thaw since almost half may be lost in the freeze-thaw process and during the wash and centrifugation steps.
If the tissue is already frozen whole, please refer to this article: How do you isolate nuclei from snap-frozen tissue for 3’ gene expression profiling?
Products: Single Cell Gene Expression, Single Cell Immune Profiling