High-reproducible flow cytometric endothelial progenitor cell determination in human peripheral blood as CD34%2b/CD144%2b/CD3- lymphocyte sub-population Article uri icon

abstract

  • Although determination of circulating endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) in peripheral blood by flow cytometry is an emerging marker for cardiovascular medicine, a common standardized protocol is still not available, due to the low numbers achieved in peripheral blood. In the present paper we describe a novel technique for EPC quantification as CD34%2b/CD144%2b/CD3- cells within the lymphocyte gate, which increases the percentages of EPC positivity described before and also offers high intra-assay reproducibility. These improvements are based on a gating strategy for big-sized lymphocytes, smooth fixation and cytometric clearance of CD3%2b lymphocytes (T-cells). This last procedure is able to increase intra-assay Pearson's correlation from 0.8517 to 0.8908. Therefore, the technical setting described here offers a high-performance and clinically oriented EPC determination strategy in human peripheral blood. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

publication date

  • 2008-01-01