Mass cytometry is a powerful technology that enables the measurement of >40 parameters at the single-cell level. The inherent spectral limitations of fluorescent flow cytometry are circumvented by the use of antibodies conjugated to metal isotope reporters, which are measured quantitatively using a CyTOF mass cytometer. The high dimensionality of mass cytometry is particularly useful for the analysis of cell signaling networks in complex biological samples. We describe here methods for cell preparation, antibody staining, data acquisition, and analysis of multidimensional data from a mass cytometry experiment.
Keywords: CyTOF; Dimensionality reduction; Flow cytometry; Mass cytometry; Mass spectrometry; Signal transduction; Single-cell analysis.