“…Single-cell suspensions were obtained from spleen and lymph node tissues, by mechanical separation according to well-established procedures. 23 Bcl-2 expression was explored in both the normal and malignant B-cell subpopulations, by combined immunofluorescence stainings directed against cell surface and intracytoplasmic proteins, 24 using the following four-color combinations of monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) directly conjugated with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), phycoerythrin (PE), PE-cyanine 5 (PECy5) and allophycocyanine (APC): bcl-2-FITC (clone 124, DAKO cytomation, Glostrup, Denmark), either CD34-PE (clone HPCA2, Becton Dickinson Biosciences (BDB), San José, CA, USA) -in BM samples -or CD23-PE (clone EBVCS-5, BDB) -in PB, spleen and lymph node samples, CD19-PECy5 (clone SJ25C1, Caltag Laboratories, San Francisco, CA, USA) and CD38-APC (clone HB7, BDB). Cell fixation and permeabilization prior to bcl-2 protein staining was performed using the Fix&Perm reagent (Caltag Laboratories) according to the methods that have been previously described in detail.…”