Down regulation of CD4 in BAL

From: Rick (pepplerr@musc.edu)
Date: Fri Jun 14 2002 - 15:56:28 EST


Hey all,

I have a client who is staining for intracellular cytokines (IFNg and
IL-4) and surface staining for CD4 and CD8 in human BAL.  Before
activating cells with PMA and ionomycin (plus Golgi Stop), the cell
surface markers look fine.  However, when we activate the cells and
stain for intracellular cytokines, CD4 is down regulated to a point
where it is virtually indistinguishable from the negative population.
CD8, IFNg and IL-4 look great, but CD4 goes away.  We've tried two
different clones and 3 different fluorochromes (APC, FITC and Alexa 488)
for CD4, but is always the same result.  We've thought about using Flow
Amp, but haven't ordered it yet.  Also, we don't see this phenomenon
when performing the assay on PBMC.  It seems to be unique to BAL.

Has any one out there in Flow Land experienced this scenario and have
any ideas on what may be happening and how to resolve it?

Thanks all,

Rick Peppler
Flow Cytometry Shared Facility
Medical University of South Carolina
Charleston, SC



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