Figure 1

Flow cytometry analysis of peritoneal wash specimens. (A) FACS analysis of normal peritoneal wash showing major cell types (neutrophils, monocytes, and lymphocytes) and cellular debris. (B, C) Unsorted cellular contents of normal (B) and spiked with cancer cells (C) peritoneal washes, labeled with multicolor cocktail of Abs (EpCAM-FITC, CD66-PE, and CD45-APC). (D, E) Negatively sorted fraction from normal (D) and cancer spiked (E) specimens showing very few epithelial cells that escaped MACS sorting. MACS sorted positive fractions of normal (F) and spiked (H) specimens, labeled with EpCAM-FITC Abs, have shown high purity of MACS sorting (96.8% and 94.5%, respectively; cellular debris were excluded). Histograms reflect significantly higher expression of immunofluorescence by the majority of cancer cells (I) compared with normal exfoliated epithelial cells (G). Same number of cells in each pair of specimens were analyzed: 12,000 EpCAM-positive cells (F and H) and 20,000 unsorted and negatively sorted populations (A, B-E).