Translational Flowcytometry for Repopulating Cells in Regenerative Medicine

Stem cells are the key for research sectors including developmental biology, toxicity screening, and cancer with greatest interest in the field of tissue engineering and cellular therapy. Since adult and pluripotent stem cells exist in low density in different tissues, suitable techniques are required for the identification, characterization, and isolation of progenitor and stem cells for both research and clinical applications. Flow cytometry is the most efficient tool to isolate, purify, sort, and study these stem cell populations. With rapid processing of large number of cells and multiparameter panels for identification allows flow cytometry to characterize the ideal population of stem cells. Fluorescent-activated cell sorting (FACS) allows for the isolation of these cells with high purity and viability for downstream applications. This chapter focuses on basic principle of flow cytometry and associated cell sorting, applications of flow cytometry in stem cell isolation, analysis, enrichment, transplantation, and programming along with the associated technical advances and challenges in the flow cytometry research.