About CD8a
The CD8 antigen is a cell surface glycoprotein found on most cytotoxic T lymphocytes that mediates efficient cell-cell interactions within the immune system. The CD8 antigen acts as a coreceptor with the T-cell receptor on the T lymphocyte to recognize antigens displayed by an antigen presenting cell in the context of class I MHC molecules. The coreceptor functions as either a homodimer composed of two alpha chains or as a heterodimer composed of one alpha and one beta chain. Both alpha and beta chains share significant homology to immunoglobulin variable light chains. This gene encodes the CD8 alpha chain. Multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene. The major protein isoforms of this gene differ by the presence or absence of a transmembrane domain and thus differ in being a membrane-anchored or secreted protein. [provided by RefSeq, May 2020]

About Brilliant Ultraviolet 395
Brilliant™ UltraViolet 395 (BUV395) is a UV-emitting base polymer dye that can be excited by the 355 nm ultraViolet laser and collected using a 379/28 bandpass filter. BUV395 has an excitation peak at 348 nm and an emission peak at 395. BUV395's fairly unique excitation and emission spectrum causes relatively little spillover into other common detectors and conflicts with very few other commonly used fluorophores. An alternative to BUV395 for flow cytometry is StarBright UltraViolet 400. This dye is part of the Brilliant™ UltraViolet dye family, developed and sold by BD Biosciences. These dyes were optimized for use with multicolor flow cytometry. BUV395 forms the backbone of the family, as all other members are tandems that use it as the acceptor, thus making them excitable by the same 355 nm UV laser.