We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the
discussion on the above issue. We had a very good and
helpful response. There was some differing opinions in
the interpretation of the staining that we were seeing,
especially with regards to the AV-PI+ cells. A number
of contributors were keen to know what the consensus
of opinion was, and so I thought I would send in some
kind of resume of what people said. The majority of
opinions seemed to say that the AV-PI+ cells may be in
late necrosis. One or two contributors, however, felt
that these cells may simply not have picked up the AV
(though we have Ca++ in our buffer) or that the changes
are due to the processing.
It was suggested that we should sort the
sub-populations (to allow microscopic visualisation),
and we may consider doing this, if we can get access to
a sorter. Others suggested simply back-gating on the
sub-population, to see where the cells lay precisely
within the FS v SS plot, and we shall certainly do this
the next time we run a sample. We have looked at slides
of the cell suspension that we put through the 'flow',
but obviously these are a heterogeneous population,
containing macrophages / neutrophils/eosinophils/
lymphocytes /epithelial cells/ +/- squamous cells, in
varying proportions, making it difficult to link what
one is seeing with what went through the 'flow'.
Unfortunately, we do not have ready access to
fluoresence microscopy to look at the cells this way.
We are grateful for people's enthusiastic contributions,
and if any one has any further thoughts, we would
welcome them.
Yours sincerely,
Martin Kelly
Department of Clinical Biochemistry,
Queen's University of Belfast,
BELFAST, Northern Ireland.
Email: m.g.kelly@qub.ac.uk
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