[Ryodipine--a new fluorescent probe in the determination of differences between lymphocytes]

Ryodipine (foridon ), a fluorescent compound possessing hypotensive activity, can be useful as fluorescence probe to distinguish between lymphocyte populations. The heterogeneity of cells revealed by the intensity of ryodipine fluorescence is mainly due to differences in the amount of membranous material in the cells. The use of ryodipine for lymphocyte identification has certain advantages over MBA, a known fluorescence probe generally employed for this purpose. Ryodipine is less prone to photodegradation and its fluorescence intensity shows no dependence on cell concentration over a much wider dye/cell ratio range.