Figure 2

Detection of EGFP-positive cells by flow cytometry. (A) Two million cells were sorted out by their size and autofluorescence by flow cytometry. (B) Among the same cell population, cancer cells were identified by strong green fluorescence in the FL-1 channel. These rare cancer cells can be separated out for further histological studies by flow cyto-metric sorting. (C) Because of their strong expression of EGFP, NV1066-infected cancer cells in body fluids can be easily identified, even in a background of millions of cells or cell clumps. Lung cancer cells were mixed with normal cells from bronchoalveolar lavage in ratios from 1:10 to 1:1,000,000 and incubated with NV1066 for 18 h. Cancer cells mixed with NV1066 served as positive controls, and normal cells mixed with NV1066 served as negative controls. The mean fluorescence intensities of EGFP-expressing cells in each sample were plotted.