Thiazole orange: a new dye for reticulocyte analysis.

The purpose of this study was to find a 488-nm excitable fluorescent dye for reticulocyte analysis by the use of fluorescence activated cell cytometry. The chemical structure of thioflavin T, a dye used for reticulocyte analysis with 457-nm excitation, was used as a model. Several dyes were synthesized and evaluated by quantum yield determination, fluorescence microscopy, and flow cytometry. The best results were obtained with a dye we have named "thiazole orange"; analysis of several blood samples with thiazole orange gave a correlation coefficient of 0.97 as compared to a manual determination of reticulocyte percentage.