R&D offers several kits and reagents for measuring cell proliferation, cell viability, and/or cell toxicity.
TACS® XTT Cell Proliferation/Viability Assay
XTT can be used to assay cell proliferation, cell viability, and/or cytotoxicity. The procedure avoids radioactivity and gives reproducible and sensitive results. XTT is added directly to the culture medium and cleavage of the tetrazolium salt to formazan occurs in metabolically active cells. The orange formazan dye generated can be measured by absorbance at 490 nm (or 450 nm) in a microplate reader.
Label: Tetrazolium salt XTT changes from yellow to orange
Testing Format: Microplate reader
Sample Type: Cultured cells
Size: 25 x 96-well microplates (Catalog # 4891-025-K)
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Relative Cell Number Measured with XTT. Murine WEHI cells were counted and serial diluted in a microplate using 100 µL of the listed densityies. Cells were incubated with XTT using the TACS® XTT Cell Proliferation/Viability Assay (Catalog # 4891-025-K) for 6 hours at 27° C and absorbances were read using an ELISA plate reader. |
MTT Cell Proliferation/Viability Assay
MTT can be used to safely assess cell proliferation, cell viability, and/or cytotoxicity. MTT is added directly to the culture medium and is reduced by metabolically active cells to insoluble purple formazan dye crystals. The absorbance of the sample is read directly in the wells at an optimal wavelength of 570 nm, but any filter that absorbs between 550 and 600 nm may be used.
Label: Tetrazolium compound MTT changes to from yellow to purple
Testing Format: Microplate reader
Sample Type: Cultured cells
Size: 25 x 96-well microplates (Catalog # 4890-025-K), 50 x 96-well microplates (Catalog # 4890-050-K)
Resazurin
Resazurin can be utilized as a simple and quantitative method for measuring cell proliferation, viability, and cytotoxicity. It is a non-toxic, water soluble, redox-sensitive dye that changes from its blue/non-fluorescent state to a pink/highly-fluorescent state upon reduction by viable cells. Fluorescence can be read using 544 nm excitation and 590 nm emission wavelengths, or absorbance can be read using a spectrophotometer set at 570 nm.
Label: Resazurin changes from blue/non-fluorescent to pink/highly-fluorescent
Testing Format: Microplate reader
Sample Type: Cultured cells
Size: 100 mL (Catalog # AR002)
Calcein AM
Calcein AM provides a simple, rapid, and accurate method to measure cell viability and/or cytotoxicity. Calcein AM is a non-fluorescent, hydrophobic compound that easily permeates intact, live cells. The hydrolysis of Calcein AM by intracellular esterases produces Calcein, a hydrophilic, strongly fluorescent compound that is well-retained in the cell cytoplasm. Cells grown in black-walled plates (Catalog # DY991) can be quantified in less than two hours using a fluorescence plate reader with excitation at 490 nm and emission at 520 nm. Kit contains reagents for ~1000 tests.
Label: Calcein fluorescence
Testing Format: Microplate reader
Sample Type: Cultured cells
Size: ~1000 tests (Catalog # 4892-010-01)