The use of carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester (CFSE) to monitor lymphocyte proliferation

Benjamin J.C. Quah, Christopher R. Parish

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    184 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE) is an effective and popular means to monitor lymphocyte division. CFSE covalently labels long-lived intracellular molecules with the fluorescent dye, carboxyfluorescein. Thus, when a CFSE-labeled cell divides, its progeny are endowed with half the number of carboxyfluorescein-tagged molecules and thus each cell division can be assessed by measuring the corresponding decrease in cell fluorescence via Flow cytometry. The capacity of CFSE to label lymphocyte populations with a high fluorescent intensity of exceptionally low variance, coupled with its low cell toxicity, make it an ideal dye to measure cell division. Since it is a fluorescein-based dye it is also compatible with a broad range of other fluorochromes making it applicable to multi-color flow cytometry. This article describes the procedures typically used for labeling mouse lymphocytes for the purpose of monitoring up to 8 cell divisions. These labeled cells can be used both for in vitro and in vivo studies.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article numbere2259
    JournalJournal of Visualized Experiments
    Issue number44
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Oct 2010

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