Affiliations: Advanced Technology Research Center, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. 8-1, Sachiura 1 cho-me, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama 236 Japan | Yokohama Research and Development Center, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. 12 Nishiki-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama 231 Japan
Note: [] Requests for reprints should be addressed to Kiyoshi Sugata.
Abstract: The 5(and 6)-carboxyfluorescein diacetate (C-FDA) is used for a rapid and continuous counting of living cells. Nonfluorescent C-FDA is converted into fluorescent 5(and 6)-carboxyfluorescein (C-F) by the reaction with esterase, which is an enzyme of living cells. The conversion makes it possible to count the number of living cells by detecting fluorescence. Experimental results show that the living cells of beer's yeast, E. coli, and Lactobacillus bulgaricus can be detected by fluorescence. The flow cell system was used to experiment a continuous detection of living cells, so that the number of living cells of beer's yeast can be detected continuously. The proposed method can be applied to the on-line counting in the food plants.
Keywords: living cell, rapid counting, C-FDA, continuous counting, flow cell system
