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>We are interested in purchasing a user friendly flow cytometer for
>sorting (if such a beast exists). A sorting example would be 500,000
>cells that represented 0.1% of a million per ml splenocyte population
>for functional studies. What are approximate relative throughput or
>sorting yields for example, on an ELITE VS a FACSort. Are there any
>consistent sorting problems with either of the two instruments. We
>appreciate your candor.
We have used, what I would call a big sorter (FACS II), for many years.
We don't have a FACSort but we did `play' with one for a few months last year.
It's a nice machine and sorting is fine. However I don't think you can
really compare it to a big sorter like the current Elite or
FACSstar/vantage.
The FACSort uses a different mechanism for sorting and the maximum sorted
rate is 300/second. The cells are also collected in a fairly large volume
of sheath; approximately 40-50mls/10 minutes (I think my memory is OK
here!). This means that even if you are sorting at the maximum of 300/sec
you could only get about 180,000 cells in a 50ml tube.
We got some nice results with the FACSort. Transfected cells initially at
about 1%; after sorting, culture and analysis were at least 95% and I
wouldn't say we even optimized the FACSort. We only collected about 10,000
cells in these sorting experiments.
So if this type of sorting is what you want fine; however it would be fair
to say it's not a direct competitor for the big sorters.
Leon.
P.S. The FACSort is very user friendly!
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Leon Martin Department of Pathology Monash University Australia
martin@cobra.path.monash.edu.au +61 3 276 2601 Fax +61 3 529 8359
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