Manipulating leukocyte populations to mimic immune disease states: a novel active approach to teaching flow cytometry to undergraduate immunology students

Flow cytometry detects and measures the physical and chemical characteristics of cells or particles. In medical laboratories, flow cytometers are used to quantify changes in cell populations associated with disease states, such as AIDS. While a powerful technique, it is challenging to teach the principles of flow cytometry to undergraduate students. One approach is to have students process and analyze a patient sample. However, this is not possible when the patient has an infectious disease. Here we report a two-stage approach to address this challenge. Magnetic beads were used to manipulate leukocytes cell populations in healthy blood to mimic the phenotype of eight immune disease conditions. The cells were then stained against cell surface markers for cell populations and analyzed by flow cytometry. The second stage focused on teaching flow cytometry over 2 wk. Week 1 involved a lecture, followed by a laboratory session where students learned how to stain a blood sample. In week 2 , students worked in a computer pool to analyze the previously generated data and determine the immunological status of a control and patient sample. Using this approach, all students achieved 100% correct diagnosis of both control and patient samples. Student feedback via a questionnaire was overwhelmingly positive, and student perceived knowledge of flow cytometry increased after the session significantly. We effectively mimicked several disease states, eliminating the need to source patient samples, yet still teaching undergraduate students the principles of flow cytometry.