Hello, I'm after some advice on a phenomenon I have seen occuring in a users experiments with the Molecular Probes dye NBD Ro-1986 (cat # N-3413) which is benzodiazepine coupled and selective for the GABAa receptor. The problem: Mean fluorescence intensity drifts upwards from around 80 relative fluorescence intensity units on a log scale to around 180 or higher within a 10 to 15 second time span before gradually stabilising, i.e continues to drift upwards very slightly. If the cells are removed from the instrument and then placed on it again the same thing happens. Negative control remains negative, i.e. mean fluor doesn't increase, no fluorescence carry over if run through the instrument after a positive sample. Yesterday when I experienced this, for the second time, the instrument had been sorting unstained cells for 6 hours so I doubt there was carryover of dye from a previous experiment. Conditions of experiment: Cells are SF9 insect cell line. Varying times post infection. Cells are suspended in PBS, sheath fluid is PBS, both from the same source. Cell scatters remain constant and characteristic for infected and non-infected cells. Fluorochrome is being excited at 457nm with 200mW laser power and emission is collected through a 530/20bp filter. A similar, though lesser affect, appears to occur at 488nm when the cells are run on a FACScan. I'd appreciate any input that anyone has on how/why this "drift" can occur and if someones got a solution to the problem, well even better. Thanks in advance, Geoff ====================================================================== Geoffrey Osborne | ____ __ o Ahh! Flow Cytometry (FACS LAB) | __ `\ <,_ John Curtin School of Medical Research, | __ (*)/ (*) Australian National University, | ==============| CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA. | |--| Email: Geoff.Osborne@anu.edu.au | |--|... Phone: 61 6 249 3694 FAX: 61 6 249 2595 -----Surfing the Web?: Try http://jcsmr.anu.edu.au/facshome.html------ ======================================================================
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