Flow Cytometry : First Principles

Rating:
Summary: An Expert's Opinion
Review: "I consider it to be the best presentation of principles of flow cytometry. The text is clearly written, the figures are well chosen." -- Zbigniew Darzynkiewicz, Brander Cancer Research Institute, New York Medical College

Rating:
Summary: a necessary primer in flow-cytometry
Review: A core book designed mainly for the nonspecialist, "Flow Cytometry: First Principles" is addressing in ten chapters the essential issues in flow-cytometry, from flow machines to reagents, techniques and their applications in fundamental research and clinical settings. The first chapters conveys us as back as the beginning of the century, when the concept of flow-cytometry germinated. Light microscopy, cell counters and ink jet technology are standing at the grounds of flow-cytometry and their merging paved the way toward the modern, "black box", flow cytometers. However, "beyond the black box", the instrumentation and the technical aspects are comprehensively described in several chapters. a discussion on data acquisition and analysis is provided, along with the most used cell staining procedures, fluorochromes, lenses, mirrors and lasers. A widespread application in flow-cytometry is cell labelling, particularly leukocyte subpopulations identification with monoclonal antibodies binding cell surface specific markers. Although lymphocytes are the prototype, methods presented here -dot-plot, histogram, quadrant analysis and gating are applicable to many other cell types , including bacteria or algae. With the advent of some "state of the art" machines, DNA and chromosome analyses become feasible by flow-cytometry. It is foreseeable that molecular biology on flow-cytometer will not stop to cell cycle, ploidy and apoptosis investigation, but even chromosomal translocations or point mutations would be detectable with enough precision for diagnosis. Beside fundamental research applications, flow-cytometry is now an indispensable technique in the clinical laboratory, too. Oncology, immunology, hematology and pathology are fields where flow diagnosis has sometimes the last word to say. Cross-match analysis and HLA phenotyping can now rapidly be performed by flow-cytometry, with usefulness in organ and bone-marrow transplantation. The final chapter is intended to present the flow-cytometry of the future, as seen in 1992, with an emphasis on the functional assays which are gaining now an increasing interest. However, a precedent, "out of the stream" chapter is preparing us on what this future could look alike. It approaches some of the border-line pplications, in fields where flow-cytometry is becoming a current tool of research. These are microbiology -prokaryotic DNA and drug resistance determination-, ecology -aquatic environment, plankton, algae-, developmental biology or the functional studies -Ca2+influx. The book is highly recommended for flow-cytometry and sorting beginners, but it is an equally pleasant lecture for people working in many life sciences fields, eager to find out how flow-cytometry is shaping current biological research.