Abstract
The tetrazolium salts (MTT, XTT, MTS, WST) based colorimetric assay or resazurin based fluorimetric assay are currently typical methods for cell sensitivity determination to anticancer compounds. We presented here a new rapid method for this purpose. This method uses a fluorescent dye named DCFH-DA which is previously taken as a intracellular probe for measurement of H2O2 levels within a cell. The application basis for this method lies in two facts: the membrane permeable feature of the final metabolite of DCFH-DA inside a cell, and the linearity relationship between cell number and H2O2 level. The results showed that there was a perfect association between cell number and fluorescent intensity determined by the DCFH-DA method, no matter whether using resuspended or adherent cells, and further 50% concentration of inhibition (IC50) comparison between data obtained by DCFH-DA method or MTT method using a positive known anticancer compound Baicalin showed that there were no significant differences in cellular sensitivity determination to compound Baicalin though there existed a relatively higher coefficient of variation of IC50 by the DCFH-DA method than that by the MTT method. Thus our data indicate that DCFH-DA might not only be a fine reagent for determination of H2O2 levels in cells but also an ideal fluorescent dye for cellular sensitivity test of anti-cancer compounds, and may be suitable for primary high-throughput drugs screening.
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Abbreviations
- MTT:
-
3-(4,5)-dimethylthiahiazo (-z-y1)-3,5-di- phenytetrazoliumromide
- XTT:
-
3′-[1-[(phenylamino)-carbonyl]-3,4-tetrazolium]-bis(4-methoxy-6-nitro)benzenesulfonic acid hydrate
- MTS:
-
3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium
- WST-1:
-
4-(3-4-iodophenyl)-2-(4-nitrophenyl)-2H-5-tetrazolio)-1,3-benzenedisulfonate
- DCFH-DA:
-
2′,7′-dichlorfluorescein-diacetate
- H2DCF:
-
2′,7′-dichlorodihydrofluorescin
- DCF:
-
2′,7′-dichlorofluorescein
- DMSO:
-
Dimethyl sulfoxide
- PBS:
-
Phosphate-buffered saline
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The authors are grateful to Dr. Dawei Li’s lab, Shanghai Jiaotong University, for providing the Varioskan Flash Multimode Microplate Reader.
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Mao, W., Chen, X., Yang, T. et al. A rapid fluorescent screening method for cellular sensitivity to anti-cancer compound. Cytotechnology 64, 451–457 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-011-9423-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-011-9423-0