Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Fluid flow dynamics
- 3 Light and optics
- 4 Electronics
- 5 Computing
- 6 Cell sorting
- 7 Preparation and staining
- 8 Miscellaneous techniques
- 9 Instrument performance
- 10 Light scatter applications
- 11 Nucleic acid analysis
- 12 Nucleic acids and protein
- 13 Chromosomes
- 14 Dynamic cellular events
- 15 Applications in oncology
- 16 Epilogue
- References
- Index
13 - Chromosomes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Fluid flow dynamics
- 3 Light and optics
- 4 Electronics
- 5 Computing
- 6 Cell sorting
- 7 Preparation and staining
- 8 Miscellaneous techniques
- 9 Instrument performance
- 10 Light scatter applications
- 11 Nucleic acid analysis
- 12 Nucleic acids and protein
- 13 Chromosomes
- 14 Dynamic cellular events
- 15 Applications in oncology
- 16 Epilogue
- References
- Index
Summary
Conventional chromosome analysis and karyotyping is time consuming, laborious and to some extent subjective as it relies upon interpretation of banding patterns and morphological features. These can vary with staining conditions and preparative methods and results are usually presented for very few metaphase spreads. This inevitably introduces a selection bias as only those preparations which are interpretable can be presented. However, these may not always be representative of the population under study. These considerations apply to any image analysis system including the best of them all, the human eye and mind, but these will always be limited in statistical precision due to the relatively few numbers of objects analysed.
A new approach in which many thousands of chromosomes can be analysed using flow cytometry, termed flow cytogenetics, was submitted to the National Academy of Sciences, USA, by Joe Gray and colleagues in December 1974 (Gray et al., 1975b). Chinese hamster cells (M3-1, clone 650A) were used and chromosomes were prepared according to the method of Wray and Stubblefield (1970). The chromosomes were stained with ethidium bromide and the results are reproduced in figure 13.1A. Later in 1975 Gray et al. (1975a) produced the first flow karyotype derived from a human cell line which is shown in figure 13.1B. By today's standards the human data set shown in this figure is not very impressive; however, this heralded the start of a new area of research and since those initial reports there have been incredible technological and preparative advances.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Introduction to Flow Cytometry , pp. 288 - 308Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991