Two-color, double-slit in vivo flow cytometer

The in vivo flow cytometer enables the real-time detection and quantification of fluorescent cells circulating within a live animal without the need for incisions or extraction of blood. It has been used in demonstrating flow velocity disparities in biological flows, and in the investigation of the circulation kinetics of various types of cells. However, a shortcoming of this in vivo flow cytometer is that it provides only one excitation slit at one wavelength, resulting in several performance limitations. Therefore, a second in vivo flow cytometer that provides two different laser wavelengths, 473 and 633 nm, and one or two excitation slits has been designed and built. Thus far, the two-color system has been used to acquire circulation kinetics data of two different cell populations each labeled with a different marker, one cell population labeled with two different markers, and one cell population expressing the green-fluorescent protein gene. In addition, accurate arterial red blood cell velocities within a mouse have been determined using the cytometer.