Which protease-free buffers can be used to detach adherent cells?
Protease-free solutions to detach adherent cells (for use in BD Phosflow applications) are EDTA solutions or commercially-available products such as enzyme-free dissociation buffers. Although it is claimed that these products are more effective than ‘home brew’ EDTA solutions, none of the trypsin-free solutions works as well as a solution containing trypsin. Detaching adherent cells, especially in the absence of trypsin, requires longer incubation times. In addition, if cells are activated first, then detached for flow cytometry applications, they could lose phospho-signals very quickly.
