Determination of Reticulocyte Number
The aliquots of whole blood (5 μl) were added to 1 ml of
Retic-COUNT reagent, and the samples were stained for 30 min in the dark at room temperature. Number of reticulo-
cytes was estimated by flow cytometry according to
manufacturer’s instructions. First, erythrocyte population
was gated by analysis of forward scatter vs. side scatter,
then the thiazole orange fluorescence intensity of the
cells was determined in FL-1. The number of Retic-
COUNT-positive cells was expressed as the percentage
of the total gated erythrocytes.