A characterization of the fluorescent properties of circulating human eosinophils

This paper presents a characterization of the fluorescence properties of human eosinophils isolated from peripheral blood of normal donors over a wide range of excitation and emission wavelengths. Circulating eosinophils possess three fluorescence excitation emission maxima: one at 280 nm excitation, 330 nm emission, attributable to tryptophan fluorescence, and currently unassigned peaks at 360 nm excitation, 440 nm emission and 380 nm excitation, 415 nm emission. Fluorescence microscopy studies show that the fluorescence of eosinophils may be site dependent; specifically, when observed at 365 nm excitation, circulating eosinophil fluorescence appears blue-violet, while the fluorescence of tissue-dwelling eosinophils appears amber-gold. These results should be considered in developing an optical biopsy technique to identify eosinophils in human tissue.