Briefly, patient LBC samples were filtered to provide a cellular sample suitable for flow cytometric analysis, treated with combinations of antibodies against biomarkers and with a fluorescent DNA intercalating dye to report a simplified cell cycle analysis of G0/G1 vs S/G2/M.
DRAQ5 was selected as the DNA intercalating dye due to its favourable spectral and operational properties. The DRAQ5 data was initially used to exclude debris and doublets as well as generate a proliferative index of the cell population.
Quoting the article: "Flow cytometric analysis of numbers of cycling cells in cervical samples also differentiated normal from high grade disease, regardless of the HPV status of the normal samples, indicating that the increase was disease and not simply HPV-infection related. The increase in numbers of cycling cells was seen whether high grade disease was based on histological examination of a biopsy or on cytology only. This indicates that this testing modality might be applicable in a wider screening context as a laboratory triage test for significant disease."
This work holds out new prospects to better identify the high risk patients and to improve their survival rates.
