nuclear stain for living cell. any recommendation for dye? - (Feb/22/2007 )

Hi everyone

I want to ask if there are any nuclear dye with lowest toxicity effect.
I tried both Hoechst 33258 and Hoechst 33342 to stain my living cell, actually I want cell live well and wait me to add the apoptosis agent to induce cell apoptosis. But under my observation in one hour after I add the nuclear staining dye and not yet adding apoptosis agent, cell already died. So if that is because too high concentration of my dye or those dyes are inherently toxic? Any help in recommending the nontoxic dye for stining my living cell?

thanks a lot

any suggestion????

although we are all geniuses here, of course every now and then there are things we don't know

have you used google? if so, have you contacted companies that make nuclear stains and gotten some data on toxicity?

anyways, sorry if this isn't very helpful, but I don't know the answer. good luck

thanks to above two responders.

I will go to read more..

thanks anyway, your experiences sometimes are more valuble than genius.

Googling live DNA staining gave this link in the first result http://www.mdc-berlin.de/cardosolab/protoc...ining_DRAQ5.doc