dWater as sheath plus ARIA question

Deer fellow Flow Figures,

I have two questions to pose:

1. Are there any groups or labs who have substituted distilled water for 
their sheath fluid in their analysers. I vaguely remember some members on 
the list discussing this. Has anyone implemented it?? Has anyone done a 
study on the changes of refractive index of the stream (well within the 
cuvette) and the effects on light scatter properties. Correspondingly how 
does it affect their PMT sets. How is the fluorescence affected? Okay so 
that was a few more than just one question.... In our joined departments we 
have 1x FACScan 2xFACSCalibur (4 colour) and I wish to remove or reduce the 
effect of salt corrosion both in the machine in general but most 
importantly around the flow cell. We just had to replace a flow cell and 
they're not cheap. We currently use 1. commercial IsotonII from Coulter 2. 
in house sheath fluid (180mg NaCl/20L distilled water)

2. We recently acquired 2XFACSArias. Can all ARIA users please expose their 
shut down and sterilisation procedures. We were recommended not to use 
ethanol (for sterilization) as it's detrimental to the flow cell. I have 
been using a 1% bleach solution running for 10-15minutes before a sort for 
quick sterilization. For the long aseptic sort clean I use 1% Bleach in the 
ethanol tank instead of ethanol and also bi-pass the de-bubbler and the 
sheath filters as recommended in the instructions. I have had no problems 
with sterility up to now. One of the ARIAs, only after 3months developed a 
"dirty" flow cell which had to be replaced. I was stunned, aghast, amazed 
as my cleaning protocol is quite stringent. Quickly, it entailed running 1% 
bleach solution for 10-15minutes before and after a sort or analysis. 
Followed by 10mins of millipore filtered water. I then shut the instrument 
down 2x (Instrument shutdown menu) with the last two washes of the flow 
cell being 1%bleach (2x) the first time and millipore filtered water (2x), 
for the second shutdown. Post the flow cell replacement I changed the 
shutdown and post sort cleaning to a detergent (1% Extran solution).

Let's share information...

cheers and beers

Geza Paukovics B.MLS.
Senior Research Assistant
The Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health
Site address:
Alfred Medical Research & Education Precinct (AMREP),
corner Punt & Commercial Roads, Prahran 3181 or
GPO Box 2284, Melbourne 3001
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