Dead cell staining - what kind of dye? (Nov/18/2008 )
Hello everyone,
In a yeast cell population, some cells die after drug treatment. What kind of dye is suitable to added into the medium to stain dead cells and does not harm viable cells? Trypan blue, crystal violet, methylene blue? Thank you.
Hmm, most mammalian (dead) cells can be stained with Trypan Blue. I would try this one.
But that would harm the viable cells too. I think.
Trypan will eventually kill live cells. I would take an aliquot of your cell population and stain it with trypan.
People doing FACS have some live cell markers (FITC?) that won't affect the cells.
WHR mentioning 'adding to medium' should mean that WHR is intending to culture the cells even after adding the stain. Is it so WHR?
Thank for your replies.
Yes, I want to add the dye into medium. The viable cells should continue to grow, and those dying cells are stained.
I have to screen a lot of plates of yeast cells. After replica to plates containing the drug, some clones will die. But even those drug sensitive cells can divide several time before they cease growing. So, it is not easy to judge by colony size.