Determination of cell mixtures by an automated cell electrophoretic instrument and monoclonal antibody

An automated cell electrophoretic instrument, Parmoquant-L, is based on the opto-electronic image analysis whose principle is the same as conventional cytopherometers. Experiments are performed with high precision (C.V. values < 1.5 %) and in short time intervals of 5 min. Using this instrument the cell populations of a mixtureof sheep red blood cells (SRBC) and rabbit red blood cells (RRBC) were determined. The ratio of high mobility cells (HMC) to low mobility cells (LMC) was identical with the mixed ratio of SRBC to RRBC (R = 0.998) and there was no influence of different cell diameters between the two populations. As the electrophoretic mobilities of mouse red blood cells (MRBC) and SRBC were almost the same, the mixture of the two populations showed a broad unimodal electrophoretic mobility pattern. After the mixture was incubated with anti-SRBC monoclonal antibody (diluted to 1/100), the mobility of SRBC decreased 30 % and it was possible to determine the cell numbers of each erythrocyte in the mixture. From these results, Parmoquant-L is suitable to determine the populations in the mixture of different erythrocytes.