| FC | Flow cytometry | (FC) is an emerging technique which holds great promise for the separation, classification and quantitation of blood cells and antibodies which affect blood cells. Complex computerized instruments are used to pass a monocellular stream of cells, platelets or other microscopic particulate elements through a beam of laser light. The cells are categorized first by size and then computer analyzed to sort the mixture of cellular elements into cell type by size. In addition, monoclonal antibodies to specific cell surface markers are conjugated to fluorescent dyes and each cell displaying appropriate fluorescent light emission is counted. Tabulation of counted data in conjunction with size analysis enables determination of relative percentages of each specific cellular subset for which monoclonal antibody conjugates are utilized, even when the size of the cell is identical to other subset species. |