The investigation of T cell signaling and cellular signaling in general allows the identification of mechanisms responsible for hyper/hypo-responsiveness in health and diseases, but several technical limits still hamper such investigations. Flow cytometry is a unique tool to investigate cellular events at the single cell level. Overcoming the intrinsic limits of fluorescence-based technology (spectral overlap, controls, loss of signal due to fading of staining reagents) would make it possible to achieve an unprecedented level and complexity of detection of phosphorylation events in a mixed cell population. Using commercially available reagents, the authors have developed a protocol that enables the identification of several signaling molecules in different T cell subsets in a single assay. This technical advance should facilitate answering questions including the identification of signaling events that may contribute to the state of immunosenescence.

Read more in the article, "Multi-parametric phospho-flow cytometry: A crucial tool for T lymphocyte signaling studies," on pages 265–272 of the March issue of Cytometry Part A.  The authors were: David Goldeck, Ivy Low, Nurhidaya Binte Shadan, Seri Mustafah, Graham Pawelec and Anis Larbi.  Article first published online: 28 JAN 2013 | DOI: 10.1002/cyto.a.22252

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