Principles and Applications of Red Blood Cell Flow Cytometry

Objective: In this review we address principles and important applications of flow cytometry in immunohematology. Sources and Criteria: Some studies of the theoretical back-ground and recent publications of current applications were selected. Results: The direct, indirect and two-color fluorescence as well as the ‘one-antigen-one-antibody’ model are addressed. Possible standardizations and quality controls are discussed. Flow cytometric analyses with erythrocytes bear special problems such as agglutination, which is of lesser im-portance with other cells types. Possible applications include the quantitation of antigen density, antibody concentration, red blood cell bound immunoglobulin, and red blood cell sub-populations. Conclusion: Red blood cell flow cytometry is very sensitive, has a high potential for automatization, and hence may gain importance especially for many routine tasks in the future.