How many cells or how much fluorophore can I see?
This is a very difficult question to answer, as it very much depends on the brightness of the cells and their spatial distribution (concentrated or dispersed). The brighter the cells/fluorophores and the more concentrated they are, the easier they are to detect. The smallest number of cells that have been imaged using a Maestro is 3000. [1] These were not particularly brightly labeled, as the detection limit for a monochrome system was 1,000,000 of these cells, which is considered fairly high. It is likely that with brighter cells, Maestro would yield a detection limit lower than 3000 cells. [1] Tam JM, Upadhyay R, Pittet MJ, Weissleder R, Mahmood U. “Improved in vivo whole-animal detection limits of green fluorescent protein-expressing tumor lines by spectral fluorescence imaging.” Mol Imaging. 2007 Oct-Dec;6(4):269-76.
