A RAPID METHOD FOR EVALUATION OF CELL NUMBER AND VIABILITY BY FLOW-CYTOMETRY

A simple, rapid and reliable method has been developed for assessing t he number and viability of cells, as well as cell size, in suspension culture by the use of flow cytometry. Propidium iodide exclusion is us ed for viability determination and fluorescent beads serve as an inter nal standard for cell enumeration. The main advantages of this method are its ability to handle a large number of samples with a high degree of precision and its specificity in detecting viable cells quantitati vely in a heterogeneous culture of living and dead cells and debris. T he method shows only a fraction of the variation found in the haemacyt ometer/trypan blue counting method due to its very low operator depend ence.