Flow cytometric analysis of lectin-stained haemocytes of the honeybee (Apis mellifera)

Abstract

The study evaluated the technical feasibility of distinguishing the different honeybee blood cells by flow cytometric analysis with and without staining by 3 lectins: soybean agglutinin (SBA), concanavalin A (ConA) and wheat germ agglutinin (WGA). Flow cytometric analysis of unstained cells provided a forward scatter-side scatter dotplot with no distinct haemocyte population. Examination of blood samples stained with FITC-labelled ConA or WGA revealed a notable population of fluorescently marked cells on FL1-histograms. Microscopic analysis, run parallel, demonstrated low fluorescence of the granular cells, strong fluorescence of the plasmatocytes, with P1's stained all over their surfaces and P2's with a rather dotted appearence. Prohaemocytes were not stained at all. SBA-FITC did not stain honeybee haemocytes as demonstrated by both the flow cytometric and the microscopic examinations.