Effect of fixation on GFP for FACS?

[Vincent Metzler]

Hi everybody,

I'm new in the field of FACS analysis. The problem I want to deal with
is the following:

I need to determine transient transfection efficiencies by sorting the
cells (FACS on HeLa cells transfected with a GFP-expressing plasmid).
But now I'm wondering if the HeLa cells will loose the GFP-fluorescence
after fixation (paraformaldehyde, I suppose) and storage (how?) until I
collected enough samples to do the FACS. I have to fix these cells also
because of biosafety considerations: they will be transfected with an
HIV-based vector.

Thanks for your help. Vincent

vincent.metzler at zoi.unibe.ch
University of Berne, Switzerland