Protocol for Flow Cytometry Intracellular Staining
Sample Preparation.
1. Grow cells to 60-85% confluency. Flow cytometry requires between 2 x 105 and 1 x 106 cells for optimal performance.
2. If cells are adherent, harvest gently by washing once with staining buffer and then scraping. Avoid using trypsin as this can disrupt certain epitopes of interest. If enzymatic harvest is required, use Accutase, Collagenase, or TrypLE Express for a less damaging option.
3. Reserve 100 uL for counting, then transfer cell volume into a 50 mL conical tube and centrifuge for 8 minutes at 400 RCF.
a. Count cells using a hemocytometer and a 1:1 trypan blue exclusion stain to determine cell viability before starting the flow protocol. If cells appear blue, do not proceed.
4. Re-suspend cells to a concentration of 1 x 106 cells/mL in staining buffer (NBP2-26247).
5. Aliquot out 100 uL samples in accordance with your experimental samples.
Tip: When cell surface and intracellular staining are required in the same sample, it is advisable that the cell surface staining be performed first since the fixation and permeablization steps might reduce the availability of surface antigens.
Intracellular Staining.
Tip: When performing intracellular staining, it is important to use appropriate fixation and permeabilization reagents based upon the target and its subcellular location. Generally, our Intracellular Flow Assay Kit (NBP2-29450) is a good place to start as it contains an optimized combination of reagents for intracellular staining as well as an inhibitor of intracellular protein transport (necessary if staining secreted proteins). Certain targets may require more gentle or transient permeabilization protocols such as the commonly employed methanol or saponin-based methods.
Protocol for Cytoplasmic Targets:
1. Fix the cells by adding 100 uL fixation solution (such as 4% PFA) to each sample for 10-15 minutes.
2. Permeabilize cells by adding 100 uL of a permeabization buffer to every 1 x 106 cells present in the sample. Mix well and incubate at room temperature for 15 minutes.
a. For cytoplasmic targets, use a gentle permeabilization solution such as 1X PBS + 0.5% Saponin or 1X PBS + 0.5% Tween-20.
b. To maintain the permeabilized state throughout your experiment, use staining buffer + 0.1% of the permeabilization reagent (i.e. 0.1% Tween-20 or 0.1% Saponin).
3. Following the 15 minute incubation, add 2 mL of the staining buffer + 0.1% permeabilizer to each sample.
4. Centrifuge for 1 minute at 400 RCF.
5. Discard supernatant and re-suspend in 100 uL of staining buffer + 0.1% permeabilizer.
6. Add appropriate amount of each antibody (eg. 1 test or 1 ug per sample, as experimentally determined).
7. Mix well and incubate at room temperature for 30 minutes- 1 hour. Gently mix samples every 10-15 minutes.
8. Following the primary/conjugate incubation, add 1-2 mL/sample of staining buffer +0.1% permeabilizer and centrifuge for 1 minute at 400 RCF.
9. Wash twice by re-suspending cells in staining buffer (2 mL for tubes or 200 uL for wells) and centrifuging at 400 RCF for 5 minutes. Discard supernatant.
10. Add appropriate amount of secondary antibody (as experimentally determined) to each sample.
11. Incubate at room temperature in dark for 20 minutes.
12. Add 1-2 mL of staining buffer and centrifuge at 400 RCF for 1 minute and discard supernatant.
13. Wash twice by re-suspending cells in staining buffer (2 mL for tubes or 200 uL for wells) and centrifuging at 400 RCF for 5 minutes. Discard supernatant.
14. Resuspend in an appropriate volume of staining buffer (usually 500 uL per sample) and proceed with analysis on your flow cytometer.
