David Lloyd writes: >I have been reading a paper which describes using an Ortho Cytofluorograph II >as the cytometry component in an automated on line cell sampling system and I >need to find out more about this instrument. I am especially keen to >find out how the sample is loaded into the instrument. Does it work like the >Couler Elite I am familiar with? However after scouring many cytometry sites >with manufacturers links and several fruitless web searches I drew a blank. > >Does anybody know if the Cytofluorograf is still made, under another name >perhaps? and if so who by? > Ortho ceased production of flow cytometers at their U. S. facility in 1987; B-D bought most of their maintenance operation and maintained the instruments for some years thereafter but has since stopped. For a while, Ortho marketed the Cytoron flow cytometer built to their specifications by Omron in Japan, but that had a system of syringe pumps for both sheath and sample feed, while Ortho's Cytofluorografs used air or gas pressure to drive both sheath and sample. In the older Cytofluorografs, the sample was placed in the inlet of a length of thermometer tubing which was then covered with a cap that had a bayonet mount, allowing pressure to be applied to the sample. Light sensors placed at two points along the tubing detected the liquid-air meniscus, allowing sample flow rate to be calculated. It seems unlikely to me that that sample handling system would be used for automated sampling, and more likely that the people who incorporated the Cytofluorograf into the automated sampling system simply connected their own sample handler to the core inlet of the flow cell. When I had an Ortho instrument in the late 1970's-early 1980's, I would often use a syringe pump to feed samples, while waiting for a replacement sample cover; as I recall, those parts tended to develop cracks frequently enough that they were often back ordered. There are a lot of people around who had hands-on experience with the old Ortho systems; Kevin Becker, who used to work for Ortho, founded Phoenix Flow Systems and helped resuscitate and resurrect a lot of Ortho instruments. -Howard
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