Dead cells

From: Richard K. Meister (meister.1@osu.edu)
Date: Tue Nov 14 2000 - 18:04:26 EST


Hello, everyone:

One of  our graduate students is trying to develop an assay for enumerating
mouse splenocytes which are activated in response to a particular antigen.
He is  using anti-IFN-gamma production to identify activated cells.  His
protocol requires approximately 1 week in cell culture, during which time
most non-activated splenocytes die (a majority of the starting population
of cells).  This is followed by a short period of restimulation with the
antigen and staining for IFN-gamma.

Flow cytometry analysis is hampered by the large population of dead cells
(not to mention that the dead cells are probably soaking up his monoclonal
antibody during staining).  He is reluctant to use a Ficoll-Hypaque
gradient to clean up the dead cells for fear that this would result in
non-specific activation of his cells.

Do any of you have a method of cleaning up the dead cells prior to cell
staining that would not result in activation of the viable cells?

Thanks in advance,

Rick Meister
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*  Richard K. Meister                  Email:  meister.1@osu.edu  *
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