Cytometry, a Biomedical Key Discipline
Microscopy is a wellknown example. Microscopes are used as tools e.g. for the magnification of microfilms or during product control while the interpretation of histo- and cytopathological slides as well as the appropriate staining of particular micromorphological structures requires the knowledge of an entire scientific discipline. The development of laser microscopes with specific stains has recently opened new disciplinary fields to biochemical morphology and cellular research.
Image and flow cytometry are precisely quantifying microscopic techniques for multiparameter measurements. Simultaneous multiparameter measurement of biochemical parameters in single cells of heterogeneous cellular systems represents an enormeous potentiator for biochemical information collection which is entirely unparalleled by other existing methodologies. The inherent principle of representative statistical sampling, the use of multiparametric cell function stains with each cell as a living, individual reaction cuvette, provides entirely new biochemical system approaches to the characterization of complex organ and tissue architectures. In addition, viable cells, organelles, nuclei or chromosomes can be preparatively sorted according to complex parameter combinations for biochemical analysis or recultivation.
The instrumental, cell staining and multidimensional result interpretation knowledge, jointly constitute the main features which advance cytometry from a tool science to a key discipline science in biomedicine.
The cytometric one cell is one biochemical cuvette concept,
overcomes these limitations by combining the advantage of
microscopic single cell observation with the advantage of performing
specific biochemical reactions or assays of specific biomolecules in
intact cells. The multiparametric system cytometry approach will
therefore entirely alter e.g. the strategy of medicine oriented
cell research in many instances.
One of these changes concerns the on purpose investigation of in-vivo
cellular heterogeneity by the system cytometry.
As much biochemical information as possible is collected in a maximum of
potentially related but nevertheless different cell populations of
complex cellular systems (blood, bone marrow, transplant biopsies etc).
The enormous amount of information is then efficiently
extracted
by Standardized Multiparameter Data Classification
(SMDC).
This allows the biochemical analysis of unperturbed complex cell systems
close to the in-vivo state. The analysis of the utmost cellular
complexity instead of cellular monosystems constitutes
the central feature of system cytometry.
The successful industrial implementation and dissemination of
instrumentation in combination with the various developments of
single cell biochemical assays has substantially enlarged but also
altered the body of cytometric knowledge over the years. Advanced
electronic network communication has added a very important
new facette to this synchronized multidisciplinary effort.
The consequences of this is that the cytometric discipline in all
likelihood will not be organized like other biomedical disciplines e.g.
cell biology, biochemistry, internal medicine, zoology, botany etc.
Cytometry consists of a rapidly evolving multisciplinary knowledge
pool, represented and supported by many thousands of scientists worldwide.
This knowledge pool constitutes a virtual entity with
high intellectual and innovative strength. Its practical
realization will vary according to local needs e.g. chairs in
large research institutions or biomedical university focus centers, self
standing scientific or routine laboratories in academia or industry as
well as research groups within university departments.
System Cytometry, a New Research Strategy
Homogeneous, synchronized model cell systems are used
in traditional biochemistry to overcome the interpretation problem
of results from cellular assays which are averaging over
many thousands or millions of cells in different functional state.
Such assays are useful for the investigation of discrete cellular functions
like antibody production or cell cycle mechanisms. Model cell systems suffer,
however, from severe inherent limitations when interrelations amongst
different cell populations are to be explored. Concerns about the
representativeness of the results from model cell systems e.g. for
the human organism or about the possibility for introducing artifacts
by cell synchronization procedures are as old as the entire model cell
system approach.
Cytometry as Virtual Discipline
Cytometry has been a multidisciplinary science from its very
beginning on. The common interests of biologists, hematologists, pathologists
and engineers generated initially the synchronized effort of a small
fraction of scientists in each of the disciplines to set out for the fast
measurements of cellular parameters. The basis for a pulsing new body
of intellectual and experimental knowledge was generated by this effort.
Off-line Internet, a timesaver !
Download
all Martinsried pages, check the concept,
follow the installation instructions (PC) and
display text and graphics from your harddisk free of network delays
For problems or comments, please contact:
G.Valet E-mail:
valet@biochem.mpg.de ,
Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie, Am Klopferspitz 18a,
D-82152 Martinsried, Germany,
Tel: +49/89/8578-2518, -2525, Fax: +49/89/8578-2563,
INTERNET address: http://www.biochem.mpg.de/valet/cytorel.html
Last update: Jun.6, 1997