FLOW CYTOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF CULTURED CELLS

The development of flow cytometry by Van Dilla et al. (21), Hulett et al. (10), Dittrich and Göhde (8) and Sprenger et al. (19) has added a new dimension to the field of cytochemistry. Flow cytometry is the rapid automated measurement of cells and cellular constituents using a device known as a flow cytometer and sorter. The flow cytometer performs fluorescence analysis on a single cell at the rate of 1000 cells per second and has the capability to sort cells from the main population. In this report I will summarize the present staining techniques and illustrate how they may be used for cell cycle and chromatin structure analyses of the cultured cells.