Citometría de flujo for the laboratory

Flow cytometry is an analytical technique that makes it possible to measure multiple physical and biochemical characteristics simultaneously, cell by cell, while the cells are suspended in a fluid, as they pass one by one through a focused beam of light. It generates an individual profile of thousands of events per second, which makes it possible to identify and quantify subpopulations that would remain hidden in a bulk measurement. Flow cytometers characterize and quantify cell populations by detecting three main signals: forward scatter (FSC) to determine relative size, side scatter (SSC) to define the granularity and complexity of the cell, and fluorescence emitted through fluorochromes conjugated to antibodies that bind to specific structures in order to determine presence and abundance.