HemaFlow™
The Intelligent Flow Cytometric Cell Differentiation Assay
For decades, investigators have been glued to the methylcellulose colony-forming unit (CFU) assay, not because they want to count colonies, but because they have been told that they need to see differentiated and mature cells in the colonies so that they can identify them as belonging to a specific hematopoietic lineage.
HemaFlow™ now provides the intelligent alternative to that paradigm. By allowing cells to grow in suspension cultures for a shorter period of time and identifying and quantifying lineage-specific cells by flow cytometry using readily available fluorochrome-conjugated, antibody membrane biomarkers, the use of instrument-based, cell differentiation detection protocols make counting colonies obsolete.
- Instrument-based to drastically reduce subjectivity.
- Simple and fast assay setup in a 96-well plate (provided in the assay kit).
- Short 4-5 day incubation for mouse cells and 5-7 day incubation for human cells.
- Uses human or mouse CD markers or other mouse lineage-specific membrane markers to define specific differentiated cell populations, as opposed to counting and identifying colonies in a methylcellulose CFU differentiation assay.
- Use HemaFlo™ to replace the CFU assay for hematopoietic cellular therapy products.
- Easy, rapid and accurate dispensing of HemaFlow™ Reagents using normal pipettes or liquid handlers.
- Suspension cultures provide important cell interactions (not present using the CFU assay) that allow: (1) shorter lag time to initiate cell proliferation; (2) more rapid culture completion; (3) greater sensitivity.
- HemaFlow™ can be adapted for high-throughput and high-content screening.
- Setup as many replicates as necessary.
- Use any flow cytometer available.
- Add counting beads to better quantify results.
- If necessary, initially verify results using either HALO®, HemoFLUOR™ or HemoLIGHT™ Research Assay Kits for same cell population being analyzed.
HemaFlow™ is available as low serum and serum-free formulations for:
- Human
- Mouse
HemaFlow™ can be used with the following fractionated cells or purified cell populations:
Human Mononuclear Cell (MNC) Fraction, CD34+ purified or CD133+ purified
- Bone marrow
- Umbilical cord blood
- Peripheral blood (normal or mobilized).
Mouse
- Bone marrow (cells can be fractionated to an MNC fraction and may also be purified)
- Spleen (purified cell population may be necessary)
- Fetal liver
- Embryonic tissue
- SC-GEMM 1: Primitive hematopoietic stem cell
- P-BFU 1: Primitive erythropoietic progenitor cell
- P-GM 1: Primitive granulocyte-macrophage progenitor cells
- P-Mk 1: Primitive megakaryopoietic progenitor cell
For background controls, use HemoGro™ medium alone.
HemaFlow™ is a replacement for the methylcellulose CFU assay using in cellular therapy processing laboratories for umbilical cord blood, bone marrow or mobilized peripheral blood.
Insread of counting and differentiating colonies based on identifying cell types within the colony, readily available CD biomarkers for different cell populations and lineages (see below) make the process fast, easy and more cost-effective.
- Add 0.09mL of HemaFlow™ Reagent to wells in the 96-well plate (provided) and add 0.01mL of the cell suspension (50,000 cells/mL) and incubate for 5 - 7 days. HemaFlow™, like the CFU assay, detects cell differentiation capability and require cell growth to occur.
- Process the cells directly in the wells or remove cells to tubes and stain with required antibodies.
- Use a flow cytometer with 4 or more fluorescent channels.
- Setup as many replicate wells as necessary.
- Combine HemaFlow™ with outher flow cytometric readouts.
- Quality control the instrument.
- Use counting beads to obtain an absolute cell number.
- Standardize the gating procedure for each cell population.
- Training is simple and quick.
The table below shows the CD antibodies used to detect different cell populations from different human and mouse HemaToxFlow™ Assay Kits.
Product / Catalog Number | Suggested Antibodies | Cell Population Detected |
---|---|---|
HemaFlow™Assay Kit for Human Stem Cells*. HF(SF)-GEMM1-100H | CD34 CD133 CD235a (GlyA) CD14 CD15 CD41 CD61 |
Hematopoietic stem cells Primitive hematopoietic stem cells (Lineage-specific cells produced from the SC-GEMM 1 stem cell population can be detected using CD antibody panels in addition to CD34 and CD133. This will be similar to differentiating and counting different colonies in a CFU assay). |
HemaFlow™ Assay Kit for Human Erythroid Cells. HF(SF)-BFU1-100H | CD235a (GlyA) | Erythroid cells |
HemaFlow™ Assay Kit for Human Myelod Cells. HF(SF)-GM1-100H | CD13 CD14 CD15 |
Myelod progenitor cells Monocytes Granulocytes |
HemaFlow™ Assay Kit for Human Megakaryocytes. HF(SF)-MK1-100H | CD41 CD61 |
Megakaryocytes Platelets |
HemaFlo™ Assay Kit for Murine Stem Cells*. HF(SF)-GEMM1-100M | CD34 | Hematopoietic stem cells |
HemaFlo™ Assay Kit for Murine Erythroid Cells. HF(SF)-BFU1-100M | CD235a Ter-119 |
Erythroid cells |
HemaFlo™ Assay Kit for Murine Myeloid Cells. HF(SF)-GM1-100M | Mac-1/CD11b F4/80 CD66b Gr-1/Ly6G Ly6C |
Monocytes/macrophages Monocytes/macrophages Granulocytes Granulocytes Granulocytes |
HemaFlo™ Assay Kit for Murine Megakaryocytic. HF(SF)-Mk1-100M | CD41 CD61 |
Megakaryocytes/platelets Megakaryocytes/platelets |
Lineage-specific cells, produced by the stem cell reagent, can also be detected using panels of the suggest antibodies for either human or mouse. Cells in specific lineages, e.g. erythroid, myeloid or megakaryocytic can then be detected using gating procedures. However, it should be noted that detecting toxicity in different lineages using the HemaToxFlo™ Stem Cell Reagent may not produce the same results obtained with the HemaToxFlow™ Reagents for individual lineages.
(SF) Add "SF" to the catalog number for serum-free reagents.
The following QuickGuide shows the steps for using HemaFlow™
- HemaFlow™ Reagent. Please choose cell population and serum formulation.
- Sterile, 96-well plate
- Sterile, adhesive foil cover to maintain sterility of unused wells
Certificate of Analysis (CoA) for HemaToxFlow™ are sent to the customer upon request
Download the SDS Sheet