The amount of antigen coated on the beads is similar to the level of expression on the surface of lymphocytes.
However, it is more uniform among different individual beads than the lymphocytes .
The study was done by using an excess amount of a FITC conjugated anti-HLA mAb to label the lymphocytes and the beads, followed by flow cytometric analysis.
The mean channel shift was taken as an indication of the amount of HLA antigens on the surface. From 11 different individuals, the average mean channel shifts was 801 for the lymphocytes
(range, 318 to 1202) and 705 for the flow beads (range, 620 to 745) .
The standard deviation was 302 for the lymphocytes and only 52 for the flow beads .
The results indicated that the amount of HLA antigen coated on the beads was similar to the average amount of antigen on the lymphocytes.