A flow cytometry assay to quantify intercellular exchange of membrane components

Membrane-compound exchange is vital for cell-to-cell communication, yet quantification of this process is difficult. Here we present a method using flow cytometry in combination with bioorthogonal and fluorescent labelling techniques to quantify the amount of exchange of cholesterol and sialylated compounds between cells. We demonstrate that direct cell-cell contact is the likely mechanism of sterol-exchange and show that by manipulating the contact time between cells using complementary coiled-coil peptides results in an enhanced exchange rate of membrane components between cells.