Potassium Chloride is a hypotonic solution, utilized for the preparation of blood lymphocyte chromosomes. Hypotonic treatment with KCl, often with the addition of sodium citrate is used most often to enhance membrane permeability and induce hypotonic cell swelling at either room temperature (15-30℃) or 37 ℃. Usually, the higher temperature is used to increase metaphase spreading. There are several factors that influence the extent of hypotonic treatment utilizing KCl and/or sodium citrate:
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Cell density
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Specimen type (e.g., slides or cell pellet)