CT01-5
MTT Reagent A
Useful in the study of cell & mitochondrial health, MTT is a pale yellow substrate that is cleaved by living cells to yield a dark blue formazan product.
Synonym(s):
MTT Formazan Assay
About This Item
Recommended Products
Quality Level
form
solid
manufacturer/tradename
Chemicon®
technique(s)
activity assay: suitable
cell based assay: suitable
shipped in
wet ice
General description
MTT is a pale yellow substrate that is cleaved by living cells to yield a dark blue formazan product. This process requires active mitochondria, and even freshly dead cells do not cleave significant amounts of MTT. Reagent A is a component of Chemicon′s MTT assay kit, Catalog Number CT01/CT02.
Application
Procedure:
1. Carry out a lymphokine, mitogen, or complement-mediated cytotoxicity assay using standard methods, in 96-well flat-bottomed tissue culture plates of good optical quality (e.g. Falcon). The final volume of tissue culture medium in each well should be 0.1 mL, and the medium (e.g. RPMI or DMEM) may contain up to 10% Fetal Bovine Serum.
2. At the end of the assay add 0.01 mL AB Solution (MTT) to each well. Mix by tapping gently on the side of the tray.
3. Incubate at 37°C for cleavage of MTT to occur. Optimal times may vary according to the assay, but four hours is suitable for most purposes. At the end of this time, the MTT formazan produced in wells containing live cells will appear as black, fuzzy crystals on the bottom of the well.
4. Add 0.1 mL Solution C to each well. Mix thoroughly by repeated pipetting with a multichannel pipettor. The HCl converts the phenol red in tissue culture medium to a yellow color that does not interfere with MTT formazan measurement. The isopropanol dissolves the formazan to give a homogeneous blue solution suitable for absorbance measurement.
5. Within an hour, measure the absorbance on an ELISA plate reader with a test wavelength of 570 nm and a reference wavelength of 630 nm. After several hours at room temperature, serum proteins may begin to precipitate due to the acid/alcohol. Chilling the plates will hasten the precipitation. If the plates must be stored before measuring, keep at 4° C before adding the acid/alcohol, then warm to room temperature and add acid/alcohol just before reading.
Results:
The MTT assay will normally detect 200 to 50,000 cells of a typical cell line, although 1,000 to 50,000 is the useful range. This number may vary for other cell types. Cytotoxic assays should be set up so that the control, unlysed cells give a signal of 0.2 to 0.4, and proliferation assays should yield a similar value at plateau concentrations. This corresponds to about 20-50,000 cells per well with a typical cell line.
Absorbance is directly proportional to the number of cells; actual cells do not absorb significantly, even up to concentrations of l x 106 cells/mL.
Legal Information
Signal Word
Warning
Hazard Statements
Precautionary Statements
Hazard Classifications
Eye Irrit. 2 - Muta. 2 - Skin Irrit. 2 - STOT SE 3
Target Organs
Respiratory system
Storage Class Code
11 - Combustible Solids
WGK
WGK 3
Flash Point(F)
Not applicable
Flash Point(C)
Not applicable
Regulatory Listings
Regulatory Listings are mainly provided for chemical products. Only limited information can be provided here for non-chemical products. No entry means none of the components are listed. It is the user’s obligation to ensure the safe and legal use of the product.
JAN Code
CT01-5:
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