流式细胞仪的原理、应用及最新进展

流式细胞术是一种采用激光束激发单行流动的细胞,对它的散射光和携带的荧光进行探测,从而完成细胞分析和分选的技术。以流式细胞术为核心技术,流式细胞仪集光学、电子学、生物学、免疫学等多门学科和技术于一体,能够高效分析微小颗粒(如细胞,细菌)的先进科技设备。它对社会产生了深远的影响,成为了科学研究的必要工具。最近几年,流式细胞仪取得了长足进步。为了深入的了解它,本文从流式细胞仪的工作原理和技术指标,在临床医学、生物学、生殖学和制药学中的应用,以及它的世界格局、仪器功能的最新进展三方面,进行了简明、扼要的论述。展望未来:功能专业化、自动化,体积小型化,多色多参数分析能力提高和分析分选速度更快成为流式细胞仪发展的趋势。     

流式细胞术在细菌快速检测中的应用

流式细胞仪(Flow cytometer)是集应用流体学、光学、电子学、生物学、免疫学等多门学科和技术于一体的新型高科技仪器。它的核心技术是流式细胞术(Flow cytometry,FCM),该技术是利用流式细胞仪,使单个细胞或其他微小生物粒子处于快速直线流动状态,且逐个通过光束,从而对单个细胞或微粒进行多参数(数量、大小、核酸含量、细胞活性、特定菌群或物种等)定量分析和分选的检测技术,具有快速、灵敏、精确以及便于操作等突出优点。本文简要介绍流式细胞仪的原理,并论述流式细胞技术在实验室研究、工业生产、临床诊断、环境评估等领域的细菌快速检测应用。     

专家答读者问：流式细胞仪如何将不同类型的细胞分开

<正>流式细胞仪（flow cytometer）是一种在功能水平上对单细胞或其他生物粒子进行定量分析和分选的检测仪器，可以每秒钟分析上万个细胞/粒子，并能同时从一个细胞/粒子中获得多个参数。其应用范围非常广泛，而且还在不断拓展，细胞分选也是它的重要应用之一。它能够根据每个细胞的光散射和荧光特征，将特定的细胞从细胞群体中分选出来。下文以细胞为例具体说明流式细胞仪的工作原理、技术特点和应用。流式细胞仪能够利用细胞的光散射特征，     

流式细胞术的发展、应用及前景

以流动中的细胞或颗粒为测量对象的流式细胞术能够在短时间内提供具有统计意义的大量单细胞、颗粒或集聚体的测量数据。经过70多年的发展,它已经成为生物学、医学、环境检测等多领域不可或缺的技术。这一技术于20世纪40年代被提出,于70年代成型,并在此后40多年里,检测性能、多参数测量能力和分选能力得到显著发展,而它的应用领域更是飞速扩展到从细菌、环境微生物检测、常规细胞功能检测,到许多临床疾病诊断和监测,再到最前沿的肿瘤免疫机理研究、免疫疗法和生物制药等广泛领域。当前,一系列新技术和相应的新型流式细胞仪被开发出来,虽然工作原理有别于传统方式,但获取大规模单细胞多参数测量的理念从未变化。流式细胞术领域正处于技术大发展和大变革的前夜。     

流式细胞术在高等植物研究中的应用

流式细胞术(FCM)是根据所测定的各种细胞性质的不同组合,从细胞群体中把某个亚群分选出来,并对它的功能和形态学进行研究或进一步培养分析。流式细胞术具有快速、灵敏和同时进行多参数检测等优点,对其基本原理和在高等植物中的应用进行了介绍。     

流式细胞术

流式细胞术发展简史 流式细胞术(flow cytometry,FCM)是一种可以对细胞或亚细胞结构进行快速测量的新型分析技术和分选技术.其特点是:①测量速度快,最快可在1s内计测数万个细胞;②可进行多参数测量,对同一个细胞做有关物理、化学特性的多参数测量,并具有明显的统计学意义;③是一门综合性的高科技方法,它综合了激光技术、计算机技术、流体力学、细胞化学、图像技术等众多领域的知识和成果;④既是细胞分析技术,又是精确的分选技术.     

用western blotting方法检测乙醇固定细胞中细胞周期素的表达

用western-blotting法测定乙醇固定细胞中细胞周期素（cyclin)的表达情况,探索western-blotting和流式细胞仪对固定细胞在流式细胞术分选前或分选后对同批标本进行蛋白同步分析的可行性,采用对数生长期的Molt-4细胞,经两种常规固定方法固定后,用western-blotting方法检测cyclinA,B1、D和E的表达,另取乙醇固定经流式细胞仪分选的G1期和G2/M期细胞裂解后,用western-blotting方法检测不同时相细胞中cyclinB1的表达。结果显示从固定细胞中提取的蛋白经western-blotting检测可得到清晰且分子量正确的条带,两种不同方法固定的细胞中检测到的cyclins表达未见明显差异。乙醇固定细胞经分选后提取蛋白行western-blotting检测可见G2/M期细胞的cyclinB1有明显表达而G1期细胞不明显。细胞进行固定,洗涤,染色和分选等处理后不影响western-blotting对其cyclins表达的分析。说明用western-blotting和流式细胞仪对固定细胞在流式细胞术分选前或分选后进行蛋白同步分析是可行的。     

流式细胞术在水体微型生物分子生物学研究中的应用

流式细胞术(FCM)是利用流式细胞仪对微小生物颗粒物的多种物理、生物学特性进行定量,并对特定细胞群体进行分选的分析测量技术。流式细胞仪是当代激光、流体力学、光学和电子计算机等学科技术高度发展的产物,是生命科学研究领域中先进的仪器之一。FCM最早应用于海洋生物学是在80年代中期,特别是1988年发现原绿球藻后[1],FCM成为研究水生微型生物(包括超微型生物)的重要手段。近年来,该领域的有关研究已成为海洋生命科学的研究热点,并从最初区分、记数不同微型浮游植物种群,发展到现在DNA分析和以荧光分子探针为辅助手段的系统发育分析…     

流式细胞术

流式细胞术是一种综合应用光学、机械学、流体力学、电子计算机、细胞生物学、分子免疫学等学科技术,对高速流动的细胞或亚细胞进行快速定量测定和分析的方法。它一秒钟能分析几千个细胞,并同时测定细胞的多个参数,广泛应用于生物医学的许多领域,如测定细胞的特征(形态、膜电位等)和细胞内pH,细胞DNA、蛋白质含量、表面受体、Ca2+等。对生物工程学来说,了解细胞的这些参数尤为重要,因为它们能比用传统技术测得的数据更好地描述细胞群体。从流式细胞仪对细胞多种参数的测定及原理,到它在生物工程学中的应用等方面进行了介绍,并讨论了流式细胞术的局限性和面临的挑战。     

流式细胞仪分选转基因斑马鱼胚胎荧光标记细胞的一种快速方法

荧光蛋白在特异组织和器官表达的转基因斑马鱼已经在发育生物学和疾病模型研究中得到了广泛的应用。这些转基因系有助于追踪和分析数量较少的细胞群。但是如果要分离得到这些细胞来定量分析mRNA或蛋白质的表达情况比较困难。利用流式细胞仪分选这些荧光标记细胞是一种解决办法。此方法在不同的实验室中被广泛地应用。也有相关流程的介绍。但是流程一般较为繁琐,操作比较困难。该文以从转基因斑马鱼Tg（Kdrl：EGFP）中分选绿色荧光蛋白阳性的血管内皮细胞为例,介绍利用流式细胞仪分选转基因斑马鱼荧光标记细胞的实验流程和技术要点。该文作者在前人工作的基础上结合大量的实验经验．发展并优化了一套操作简便、效率较高的流程来分选这些细胞,在此做详细的介绍给大家以供参考。     

Flow cytometer based on triggered supercontinuum laser illumination

Multiple wavelength operation in a flow cytometer is an exciting way for cell analysis based on both fluorescence and optical scattering processing. For example, this multiparametric technique is currently used to differentiate blood cells subpopulations. The choice of excitation wavelengths matching fluorochrome spectra (it is currently the opposite) and the use of a broader range of fluorochromes can be made by taking advantage of a filtered supercontinuum white light source. In this study, we first wished to validate the use of a specific triggered supercontinuum laser in a flow cytometer based on white light scattering and electric sizing on human blood cells. Subsequently, to show the various advantages of this attractive system, using scattering effect, electrical detections, and fluorescence analysis, we realized cells sorting based on DNA/RNA stained by thiazole orange. Discrimination of white blood cells is efficiently demonstrated by using a triggered supercontinuum-based flow cytometer operating in a "one cell-one shot" configuration. The discriminated leukocyte populations are monocytes, lymphocytes, granulocytes, immature granulocytes, and cells having a high RNA content (monoblasts, lymphoblasts, and plasma cells). To the best of our knowledge, these results constitute the first practical demonstration of flow cytometry based on triggered supercontinuum illumination. This study is the starting point of a series of new experiments fully exploiting the spectral features of such a laser source. For example, the large flexibility in the choice of the excitation wavelength allows to use a larger number of fluorochromes and to excite them more efficiently. Moreover, this work opens up new research directions in the biophotonics field, such as the combination of coherent Raman spectroscopy and flow cytometry techniques.     

Flow cytometry and FACS applied to filamentous fungi

Flow cytometry is an automated, laser- or impedance-based, high throughput method that allows very rapid analysis of multiple chemical and physical characteristics of single cells within a cell population. It is an extremely powerful technology that has been used for over four decades with filamentous fungi. Although single cells within a cell population are normally analysed rapidly on a cell-by-cell basis using the technique, flow cytometry can also be used to analyse cell (e.g. spore) aggregates or entire microcolonies. Living or fixed cells can be stained with a wide range of fluorescent reporters to label different cell components or measure different physiological processes. Flow cytometry is also suited for measurements of cell size, interaction, aggregation or shape using non-labelled cells by means of analysing their light scattering characteristics. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) is a specialized form of flow cytometry that provides a method for sorting a heterogeneous mixture of cells into two or more containers based upon the fluorescence and/or light scattering properties of each cell. The major advantage of analysing cells by flow cytometry over microscopy is the speed of analysis: thousands of cells can be analysed per second or sorted in minutes. Drawbacks of flow cytometry are that specific cells cannot be followed in time and normally spatial information relating to individual cells is lacking. A big advantage over microscopy is when using FACS, cells with desired characteristics can be sorted for downstream experimentation (e.g. for growth, infection, enzyme production, gene expression assays or ‘omics’ approaches). In this review, we explain the basic concepts of flow cytometry and FACS, define its advantages and disadvantages in comparison with microscopy, and describe the wide range of applications in which these powerful technologies have been used with filamentous fungi.     

Automated analysis of the cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay for radiation biodosimetry using imaging flow cytometry

The cytokinesis-block micronucleus (CBMN) assay is employed in biological dosimetry to determine the dose of radiation to an exposed individual from the frequency of micronuclei (MN) in binucleated lymphocyte cells. The method has been partially automated for the use in mass casualty events, but it would be advantageous to further automate the method for increased throughput. Recently, automated image analysis has been successfully applied to the traditional, slide-scoring-based method of the CBMN assay. However, with the development of new technologies such as the imaging flow cytometer, it is now possible to adapt this microscope-based assay to an automated imaging flow cytometry method. The ImageStream^X is an imaging flow cytometer that has adequate sensitivity to quantify radiation doses larger than 1 Gy while adding the increased throughput of traditional flow cytometry. The protocol and analysis presented in this work adapts the CBMN assay for the use on the ImageStream^X. Ex vivo-irradiated whole blood samples cultured for CBMN were analyzed on the ImageStream^X, and preliminary results indicate that binucleated cells and MN can be identified, imaged and enumerated automatically by imaging flow cytometry. Details of the method development, gating strategy and the dose response curve generated are presented and indicate that adaptation of the CBMN assay for the use with imaging flow cytometry has potential for high-throughput analysis following a mass casualty radiological event.     

Cellometer image cytometry as a complementary tool to flow cytometry for verifying gated cell populations

Traditionally, many cell-based assays that analyze cell populations and functionalities have been performed using flow cytometry. However, flow cytometers remain relatively expensive and require highly trained operators for routine maintenance and data analysis. Recently, an image cytometry system has been developed by Nexcelom Bioscience (Lawrence, MA, USA) for automated cell concentration and viability measurement using bright-field and fluorescent imaging methods. Image cytometry is analogous to flow cytometry in that gating operations can be performed on the cell population based on size and fluorescent intensity. In addition, the image cytometer is capable of capturing bright-field and fluorescent images, allowing for the measurement of cellular size and fluorescence intensity data. In this study, we labeled a population of cells with an enzymatic vitality stain (calcein-AM) and a cell viability dye (propidium iodide) and compared the data generated by flow and image cytometry. We report that measuring vitality and viability using the image cytometer is as effective as flow cytometric assays and allows for visual confirmation of the sample to exclude cellular debris. Image cytometry offers a direct method for performing fluorescent cell-based assays but also may be used as a complementary tool to flow cytometers for aiding the analysis of more complex samples.     

Unique analytical capabilities of laser scanning cytometry (LSC) that complement flow cytometry

Flow cytometry has become an indispensable instrumentation in many disciplines of biology and medicine. There are some limitations of flow cytometry, inherent to the fact that the cells are measured in flow, which limit its usefulness in some applications. The microscope-based laser scanning cytometer (LSC) has many features similar to flow cytometry but few restrictions of the latter and therefore it is useful in many new applications. This review briefly outlines the applications that are unique to LSC, particularly related to its morphometric capabilities and the possibility of cell relocation. Potential future applications of LSC are also discussed.     

Sorting cells for basal and induced autophagic flux by quantitative ratiometric flow cytometry

We detail here a protocol using tandem-tagged mCherry-EGFP-LC3 (C-G-LC3) to quantify autophagic flux in single cells by ratiometric flow cytometry and to isolate subpopulations of cells based on their relative levels of autophagic flux. This robust and sensitive method measures autophagic flux rather than autophagosome number and is an important addition to the autophagy researcher’s array of tools for measuring autophagy. Two crucial steps in this protocol are i) generate cells constitutively expressing C-G-LC3 with low to medium fluorescence and low fluorescence variability, and ii) correctly set up gates and voltage/gain on a properly equipped flow cytometer. We have used this method to measure autophagic flux in a variety of cell types and experimental systems using many different autophagy stimuli. On a sorting flow cytometer, this technique can be used to isolate cells with different levels of basal autophagic flux, or cells with variable induction of flux in response to a given stimulus for further analysis or experimentation. We have also combined quantification of autophagic flux with methods to measure apoptosis and cell surface proteins, demonstrating the usefulness of this protocol in combination with other flow cytometry labels and markers.     

Peculiarities of cytometrical methods of DNA content determination in the nucleus

This work has proposed a new theoretical approach to analysis of histograms of DNA content, which are obtained by the method of flow cytometry, in cells of Drosophila melanogaster imaginal discs. The precision of measurements of the DNA amount in G₁ and G₂(M) phases has been shown to be limited by precision of instrument tuning of zero of the flow cytometer. Use of the calculative zero of the flow cytometer and of dividing cells as standards of the DNA content is able to increase severalfold the precision of the DNA measurements in nuclei of the species. Comparative analysis of errors of various methods of measurement of the DNA content in cell nuclei is also performed. For methods of flow fluorescent cytometry, confocal scanning, and cytophotometry of the Feulgen-stained nuclei, it has been shown that, at present, the mean square errors of the DNA content measurements are within the interval of values considered acceptable for biological studies (0.02 < CV < 0.06).     

Chromosomes in the flow to simplify genome analysis

Nuclear genomes of human, animals, and plants are organized into subunits called chromosomes. When isolated into aqueous suspension, mitotic chromosomes can be classified using flow cytometry according to light scatter and fluorescence parameters. Chromosomes of interest can be purified by flow sorting if they can be resolved from other chromosomes in a karyotype. The analysis and sorting are carried out at rates of 10(2)-10(4) chromosomes per second, and for complex genomes such as wheat the flow sorting technology has been ground-breaking in reducing genome complexity for genome sequencing. The high sample rate provides an attractive approach for karyotype analysis (flow karyotyping) and the purification of chromosomes in large numbers. In characterizing the chromosome complement of an organism, the high number that can be studied using flow cytometry allows for a statistically accurate analysis. Chromosome sorting plays a particularly important role in the analysis of nuclear genome structure and the analysis of particular and aberrant chromosomes. Other attractive but not well-explored features include the analysis of chromosomal proteins, chromosome ultrastructure, and high-resolution mapping using FISH. Recent results demonstrate that chromosome flow sorting can be coupled seamlessly with DNA array and next-generation sequencing technologies for high-throughput analyses. The main advantages are targeting the analysis to a genome region of interest and a significant reduction in sample complexity. As flow sorters can also sort single copies of chromosomes, shotgun sequencing DNA amplified from them enables the production of haplotype-resolved genome sequences. This review explains the principles of flow cytometric chromosome analysis and sorting (flow cytogenetics), discusses the major uses of this technology in genome analysis, and outlines future directions.