A new flow cytometry technique from Beckman Coulter is set to speed and simplify whole blood sample preparation, as Norman Maidment explains.
Manual sample preparation, involving centrifugation, is one of the most time-consuming activities in flow cytometry, both in research and clinical laboratories. The need for a washing step between the addition of each reagent means that it often takes over 60 minutes to compete the process manually. n addition, achieving maximum signal clarity while adjusting for the inherent background noise factor is just one of the challenges faced by even the most expert flow cytometrist.
It would be an advantage for any researcher to be able to simplify and speed up sample preparation, enabling easy access to the interior of human leucocytes. But, for a high level of accuracy, this needs to be achieved with minimal cell loss and degradation, which is often a problem during the wash process.
Reduced preparation time
Over 25 years ago, Beckman Coulter led the way in developing a means to carry out flow cytometry analysis of surface staining markers without centrifugation. However, this has not been available for intracellular staining.
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