title: Clinical application of four and five-color flow cytometry lymphocyte subset immunophenotyping.
abstract: A 1995 survey of clinical flow cytometry laboratories in the United States determined that 63% of clinical laboratories used one or two-color, 33% used three-color, 4% used four-color, and none used five-color panels. We show the feasibility and advantages of acquiring routine clinical four-color, six-parameter and five-color, seven-parameter analysis on blood samples derived from a pediatric population. The panels were evaluated by comparing the following cell characteristics: size, internal structure, and up to five distinct fluorochrome-conjugated antibodies to cell surface antigens: CD3, CD16+CD56, CD19, CD8, and CD4. These samples were processed on a commercially available instrument without any special modifications. A comparison of two-color and four-color as well as four-color and five-color panel analysis showed no statistical difference between the groups. We propose that the five-color, single-tube panel will (1) eliminate the need for isotype controls; (2) the relative proportions of lymphocyte subpopulations may be used to validate the operator-defined window, replacing CD45; (3) eliminate the need to run a common factor, in order to establish and maintain a reproducible lymphocyte window between tubes; and (4) create a more complete clinical picture by generating 32 unique, mutually exclusive phenotypes (permutations). Our results show that it is feasible to acquire and integrate seven-parameter data. This may be a powerful tool for immunophenotyping cells in a modern clinical diagnostic cytometry laboratory.
authors.affiliation: Core Laboratory Facility, Research Institute, Miami, Florida, USA. arturo.alamo@mch.com
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Alamo
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Melnick
mesh_terms: D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000032:analysis; D003116:Color; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000379:methods*; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping / Q000379:methods*; D016131:Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000145:classification*
chemical_list: D015703:Antigens, CD; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes