Quality assurance program for peripheral blood mononuclear cell cryopreservation.

Seven Brazilian sites participating in the Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group international cryopreservation quality assurance pilot program cryopreserved and shipped peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) to a central U.S. laboratory for analysis. Cell viability and recovery significantly increased over time. A wet-laboratory training session conducted at the central laboratory significantly improved the quality of the cryopreserved PBMC.