BD Horizon Brilliant™ Buffer

The BD Biosciences commitment to quality includes continual improvement of the flow cytometry tools we produce. Those efforts have yielded BD Horizon Brilliant™ polymer conjugates that can more easily and precisely help you resolve rare and dim cell populations. When conjugates are used with this innovative proprietary staining buffer, the combined formulation resolves possible dye-to-dye interactions for consistently predictable results.

BD Horizon™ Brilliant Stain Buffer Promotion

We want to make sure that researchers can easily obtain the best results possible using BD Horizon Brilliant™ dyes, so we are offering BD Horizon™ Brilliant Stain Buffer free with the purchase of BD Horizon Brilliant reagents.

There are two options for receiving Brilliant Stain Buffer (BSB) for free:

	Promotional Offer	Promo Code
Buy Any Two Brilliant Reagents	100-test size BSB Cat. No. 563794 free!	BSBISBACK2
Buy Any Five Brilliant Reagents	1000-test size BSB Cat. No. 566349 or 566385 free!	BSBISBACK5

Brilliant Stain Buffer, when added to samples prior to the addition of antibodies, can mitigate any nonspecific interactions between polymer dyes when using multiple BD Horizon Brilliant reagents in the same experiment. This can thereby improve staining quality, regardless of the source of reagents. The solution also can be used to stabilize antibody cocktails containing BD Horizon Brilliant polymer conjugates for at least 24 hours.

This promotional offer includes the BD Horizon™ Brilliant Stain Buffer Plus (Cat. No. 566385) which has been formulated to have a reduced volume per test of 10 µl.

Option 1: Receive a 100-test size of Brilliant Stain Buffer, Cat. No. 563794, free with purchase of any two BD Horizon Brilliant reagents that are at least a 50 test-size. All items must be added to shopping cart and promo code BSBISBACK2 must be entered in the promo code field.*

Option 2: Receive a 1,000-test size of Brilliant Stain Buffer, Cat. No. 566349 or 1,000 test size of Brilliant Stain Buffer Plus, Cat. No. 566385, free with purchase of any five BD Horizon Brilliant reagents. Must be at least a 50 test-size. All items must be added to shopping cart and promo code BSBISBACK5 must be entered in the promo code field.*

Please contact your BD sales representative for any additional information regarding Brilliant Stain Buffer.

Valid for online orders from bdbiosciences.com only. Not available for Punchout customers.

Optimizing Experiments Using BD Horizon Brilliant Polymer Conjugates

BD Horizon Brilliant polymer conjugates have expanded the number of bright fluorochromes available for multicolor flow cytometry. As with all fluorochromes, building multicolor panels with these reagents requires optimization.

While using multiple BD Horizon Brilliant™ reagents in the same experiment, we observed several artifacts that appeared to be related to nonspecific interactions between the polymer dyes themselves. In some instances, populations appear to be undercompensated in multicolor staining, while single color compensation controls appear to be properly compensated (top image). In other instances, the negative population can appear multivariate rather than as a single, discrete population (bottom image). The effects of interactions can be seen in reagents from BD and from other companies.

BD Horizon™ Brilliant Stain Buffer, when added to samples prior to the addition of antibodies, can mitigate any nonspecific interactions between polymer dyes when using multiple BD Horizon Brilliant reagents in the same experiment. This can thereby improve staining quality, regardless of the source of reagents. The solution also can be used to stabilize antibody cocktails containing BD Horizon Brilliant polymer conjugates for at least 24 hours.

The various interactions appear to be dependent upon several factors, including reagent combination, staining volume, sample type and variation between samples. Regardless of the cause, the interactions can be mitigated with the addition of Brilliant Stain Buffer prior to the addition of antibodies to the samples. Since there are so many variables that can contribute to the interactions, Brilliant Stain Buffer might not be required in all experiments. However, we recommend using Brilliant Stain Buffer any time you use more than one BD Horizon Brilliant polymer conjugate in the same experiment. As with any new protocol, we highly recommend that investigators perform side-by-side experiments to determine if their staining can benefit from the addition of BD Horizon Brilliant Stain Buffer.

BD Horizon™ Brilliant Stain Buffer Plus

For maximum flexibility, BD Horizon™ Brilliant Stain Buffer is offered in two formats, Brilliant Stain Buffer (Cat. Nos. 563794 and 566349) and Brilliant Stain Buffer Plus (Cat. No. 566385). Brilliant Stain Buffer Plus was developed to have a reduced test volume for applications in which total stain volume is a concern. Total stain volume may be a concern in higher-order panels, where the large number of antibodies can result in a high stain volume per test. Brilliant Stain Buffer Plus has a test volume of 10 μl/test, significantly reducing the volume added per test compared to Brilliant Stain Buffer. Both Brilliant Stain Buffer and Brilliant Stain Buffer Plus are effective in mitigating staining artifacts that may be seen when using multiple BD Horizon Brilliant reagents together (Figure 3).