Greetings Sumit,

I have used a technique to examine the membrane permeability of bacteria (as a hallmark of cell viability) that was simple and helpful. Using SYTO9 as a stain for double standard DNA that permeates all cells and a Propidium Iodide stain that only enters damaged or compromised outer membranes you can identify those with permeable membranes. SYTO 9 is fluorescent green, but if the membrane is permeable, the PI enters and extinguished the green by creating a bright red fluorescence. Using this technique in cultures or 96 well plates you can do kinetics where the red/green ratio is a measure of intact/permeable cells, image them by microscopy, or on flow cytometry you can count the number of green versus red cells out of 10,000 events, ect. It is sold commercially by life technologies under LIVE/DEAD stain, but can also be made manually at a fraction of the cost. 

I hope this is applicable to Leishmania parasites, it worked well with bacteria. 

Alex

Thanks Thomas, for your quick reply. I will certainly look into a convenient protocol that uses these two dyes.

You may used membrane impermeable dye such as propidium iodide (1 ug/ml) followed by FACS analysis.  Good luck!

Chaoqun

I think the best option would be to use PO-PRO1 by Life Technologies. It can detect changes on cell membrane and is commonly used to detect apoptosis, You can use it with another dye like 7-AAD or PI.  if you dont have a violet laser, YO-PRO1 is an alternative.