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Flow Cytometry
b. exquisite precision;
c. gentleness with biological materials (cellular viability
and function unchanged by the process), and;
d. the possibility of simultaneously measuring many parameters
on a single cell.
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Flow
cytometry (measurement of cells as they flow by a detector) has
been available for analysis and sorting a variety of cell types
in fluid suspension since the late 1970s. Flow cytometers use focused
laser light to illuminate cells as they pass the laser beam, one
at a time, in a fine fluid stream. Light scattered by the cells
and light emitted by fluorescent dyes attached to cells of interest
are analyzed by several detectors and processed by a computer. Cells
may be distinguished and selected on the basis of size and shape
as well as by the presence of many different molecules inside and
on the surface of the cells. The power of flow cytometry over other
techniques is:
