Flow Cytometry Assessment of In Vitro Generated CD138⁺ Human Plasma Cells

Table 1

Comparison of anti-CD138 antibodies on RPMI-8226 cell line.

Anti-CD138 antibodies		Stain index^1
Clone	Fluorochrome	Unfixed^2	Fixed cells^2
		<1 h	<1 h	18–20 h
1D4	FITC	3.2	2.4	0.8
B-A38	PE	85.1	78.2	14.1
	Alexa 647	118.0	78.2	21.7
B-B4	PE	32.4	16.5	3.7
DL-101	PE	1.7	3.2	1.9
MI-15	PE	24.7	17.9	5.6
	PCP CY5.5	3.4	3.7	1.3

1Stain index corresponds to 𝐷/𝑊 where 𝐷 = [MFI-test − MFI-unstained] and 𝑊 = [2 × SD-unstained] and where MFI is the median fluorescence intensity.
²Cells were stained and analyzed immediately without fixation (<1 h), or stained and fixed and analyzed immediately (<1 h), or kept at 4°C in the dark and analyzed after 18 to 20 hours as indicated.