The CellTiter-Blue® Cell Viability Assay provides a homogeneous, fluorescent method for monitoring cell viability. The assay is based on the ability of living cells to convert a redox dye (resazurin) into a fluorescent end product (resorufin). Nonviable cells rapidly lose metabolic capacity and thus do not generate a fluorescent signal. The homogeneous assay procedure involves adding the single reagent directly to cells cultured in serum-supplemented medium. After an incubation step, data are recorded using either a plate-reading fluorometer (preferred) or spectrophotometer.
The homogeneous, add-incubate-measure format of the assay reduces the number of handling steps. The assay has an excellent Z´ factor and offers more flexibility in assay incubation times compared to other resazurin-based assays.
The reagent is generally nontoxic to cells, allowing extended incubation periods in some situations and requires no scintillation cocktail, radioactive waste disposal (unlike [3H]-thymidine incorporation assays) or hazardous solvents (as required for MTT tetrazolium-based assays). It is designed to provide sufficient volumes for accurate pipetting into 96- or 384-well formats, and convenient product sizes are available for high-throughput screening.
Notes
Each G8080 system provides sufficient reagents to perform 1,000 assays in a 96-well format or 4,000 assays in a 384-well format when the recommended volumes are used. Likewise, each G8081 system provides sufficient reagents to perform 5,000 and 20,000 assays; each G8082 system provides sufficient reagents to perform 50,000 and 200,000 assays.