Cell proliferation and viability assays are important routine techniques in cell biology. MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) is a positively charged compound which can penetrate viable eukaryotic cells and reflect cytosolic metabolic activities. Soluble MTT is taken into cells, and is reduced by NADH or other reducing molecules by electron transfer. The reduced MTT forms insoluble formazan which accumulates both inside of and on the surface of cells. Generation of formazan reflects viable cell density because dead cells lack the metabolic activity to turn MTT into formazan (1). The resulting formazan can be solubilized and quantified to evaluate cell proliferation and viability.
Chondrex, Inc. provides an MTT cell proliferation and viability assay kit to assay cell viability and cell density using an absorbance microplate reader. This kit can be used for up to 250 samples in duplicate.
Cell Viability Assays
| Product | Catalog # | Price (USD) |
| MTT Cell Proliferation and Viability Assay | 6034 | 170.00 |
References
1. P. R. Twentyman, M. Luscombe, A study of some variables in a tetrazolium dye (MTT) based assay for cell growth and chemosensitivity. Br J Cancer. 56, 279–285 (1987).