Re: very rare events: how low can you go?

From: Nathan Foushee (nathan@bangslabs.com)
Date: Mon Jan 29 2001 - 11:07:42 EST


>This question arises from a rather heated discussion following a seminar
>yesterday, in which the speaker claimed that flow cytometry is not
>useful for analyzing cells that are less than 1-2% of the starting
>population. I am sure that with all of the sorting, multicolor analysis,
>and multiparameter gating that people do, we can prove this assertion
>wrong.
>
>If you have experience or publications with analysis of events well
>below 1% of the starting cell population, could you please share some
>examples or references?

Many publications dealing with the flow cytometric analysis of peripheral blood
progenitor cells (PBPC's, Bone Marrow Stem Cells, CD34 positive cells, etc.) will
deal with populations less than 1% of the total cells.  (Typical peripheral stem cell
collections run in the 0.3 to 1.0 % CD34 positive range, depending on the disease state.
This small subpopulation is often isolated and then analyzed by itself to determine
even smaller subsets.)

The ASBMT journal "Biology of Blood and Bone Marrow Transplantation" carries many
articles each month to that end.

Hope it helps!

--
Nathan D. Foushee, MT (ASCP)
Product Specialist - Flow Cytometry

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