Clonal heterogeneity assessed by flow cytometry in B-cell lymphomas arising from germinal centers

Human peripheral B cells: a different cytometric point of view

BACKGROUND

Human peripheral B lymphocytes, analyzed by current flow cytometers, frequently show complex patterns of morphological and fluorescence signals. However, fluorescence intensity values are commonly reported without any correlation to the cell surface area. We propose a different approach, based on the evaluation of the ratio of phenotype fluorescence intensity to forward scatter intensity, to determine the apparent fluorescence density of surface molecules.

METHODS

Starting from list mode acquired data, and after logical gating of live B cells, the analytical procedure suggests a serial scanning of the FSC versus SSC plot to obtain apparent fluorescence density of progressively larger cells.

RESULTS

This method, applied to normal human peripheral B lymphocytes, was able to detect the presence of steady and modulated (with respect to cell size) fluorescence densities for a variety of surface molecules. B cells from patients with B cell disorders displayed interesting alterations of the phenotype density values and distributions.

CONCLUSIONS

Our preliminary data show that, in human B cell cytometry, the apparent fluorescence density based method allows one to recognize variations in fluorescence intensities solely due to cell size differences and to disclose patterns of expression not detectable by the conventional intensity based approach.