Zheng Liu Author Answered Mar 28, 2013
Bio-protocol
Yes. You can still find the three populations after ficoll. Whole blood staining has two advantages I can think of.
1. it is easy and saves your time.
2. it doesn't activate monocytes. In my hands, Ficoll activates monocytes which upregulate their surface expression of active form of CD11b and maybe other molecules. So it may not suits certain experiments.
Dr. Z. Liu