PE-Cy5

Flow cytometry (FC) is a technique for high-speed, step-by-step quantitative analysis and sorting of single cells or other biological particles in a suspension by detecting labeled fluorescent signals.

Flow cytometric DNA-content cell-cycle staining measures the fluorescence intensity of DNA-bound fluorochromes in single cells or nuclei to estimate DNA content distributions, allowing assignment of populations to G0/G1, S, and G2/M phases by DNA histogram deconvolution. Propidium iodide (PI) intercalates into DNA, and PI fluorescence is proportional to cellular DNA content when staining is performed under conditions that make DNA accessible and minimize non-DNA signal. Cells with G2/M DNA content are expected to show approximately twice the fluorescence intensity of G0/G1 cells, while S-phase cells occupy intermediate fluorescence values. PI-based DNA-content analysis can also detect cells with fractional DNA content, often reported as sub-G1, when DNA fragmentation and extraction during staining reduce retained DNA signal in apoptotic cells. DAPI is an alternative DNA fluorochrome for univariate DNA-content analysis, while bivariate approaches combining DNA content with proliferation

Phospho-flow cytometry detects intracellular phosphorylated signaling proteins in single cells using phospho-specific antibodies after rapid fixation and permeabilization; the fluorescence intensity reflects phosphorylation state and therefore kinase-pathway activation, inhibition, or drug response in defined cell subsets. Unlike Western blot, phospho-flow preserves single-cell resolution and can measure signaling heterogeneity in cancer cells, primary immune cells, dissociated mouse tumors, macrophages, organoid-derived cells, and drug-screening samples when validated antibodies and fixation/permeabilization conditions are used.

Antibody-based immunofluorescence/immunocytochemistry detects the cellular or subcellular localization of a target antigen by binding a primary antibody to the target and detecting that antibody directly with a fluorophore-conjugated primary antibody or indirectly with a fluorophore-conjugated secondary antibody. Indirect immunofluorescence can amplify signal because multiple secondary antibodies can bind one primary antibody. The assay readout is fluorescence intensity and localization measured by fluorescence or confocal microscopy, and the result reflects antigen distribution only when the antibody has been validated for the target, sample type, fixation condition, and imaging workflow. Antibody specificity must not be assumed from catalog information alone, and appropriate validation or control experiments are required for serious interpretation.