I am actually planing to gain more flexibility in my experiment so if I fix the cells after staining them will it affect the surface expression of antibodies in anyway?
I think it depends on the fixative you use. Some fixatives will/can damage the fluorophores. (e.g. Formalin).
You can also fix your cells first and then stain them. We tried that and still found good results after 2-3 days. (we fixed the cells in 0.5% formalin for 10 minutes at 4°C)
Thanks Langyue, just want to inform everyone that cells I am planing to stain and fix is whole blood minus RBC's (mix of PBMC's and granulocytes), so is there any special care i need to take?