New Promega Assay Improves Cell Culture Cytotoxicity Results

CellTox™ Green Cytotoxicity Assay Enables Longer Term Exposure Analyses

MADISON, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Promega Corporation announces the introduction of a novel cytotoxicity assay that can be used on cell cultures for up to 72 hours, with flexibility for kinetic analysis to determine the onset of cytotoxicity. The CellTox™ Green Cytotoxicity Assay uses an asymmetric cyanine dye as a fluorescent marker that is impermeable to live cells but strongly binds DNA from dead cells, providing a signal that is directly proportional to cytotoxicity.

The CellTox™ Green dye is photostable and non-toxic to mammalian cells, allowing multiple reads over an extended exposure period without compromising cytotoxicity data. Other similar dyes have limited applications due to photo-instability and cytotoxicity to mammalian cells. Also, enzymatic activity biomarker assays that measure cytotoxicity, such as LDH release, have a short biomarker half-life and can result in the underestimation of cytotoxicity if used in extended exposure protocols.

The CellTox Green dye is easily multiplexed with luminescent or other fluorescent cell-based assays with an add-mix-measure protocol to provide more informative data per well. The assay reagent is also easily automated and scalable for use in 96-well to 1536-well formats. This assay is ideal for determining the cytotoxic effects of various treatments on cells in culture following long-term exposure.

Promega Corporation is a leader in providing innovative solutions and technical support to the life sciences industry. The company’s 2,000 products enable scientists worldwide to advance their knowledge in genomics, proteomics, cellular analysis, molecular diagnostics and human identification. Founded in 1978, the company is headquartered in Madison, WI, USA with branches in 15 countries and over 50 global distributors. For more information about Promega, visit www.promega.com.