Multiparameter flow cytometry for discovery of disease mechanisms in rheumatic diseases.

Flow cytometry has emerged as an essential tool for investigators in the study of the complexity of the immune system and the examination of its role in human health and disease. This technology has developed to the point where one can readily generate a large descriptive data set that details the levels of important immune cell subsets and defines an individual immune cell signature or “Immune-cellome”. This immune cell signature would clearly display individual variation but also would change in a manner reflective of disease state. Analysis of the “immune-cellome” may provide novel insight into disease pathophysiology, provide new biomarkers of disease activity and perhaps identify therapeutic targets. In this brief review we will cover current advances in complex flow cytometry and suggest ways this may be applied to the study of rheumatic diseases.