Cell Proliferation, Viability & Cytotoxicity

Cell proliferation, viability, and cytotoxicity assays for metabolic activity and DNA synthesis

When you need to measure cell number, metabolic activity, membrane integrity, or DNA synthesis as proxies for proliferation, viability, or cytotoxicity, this section covers the assays. MTT, MTS, WST-1, alamarBlue and resazurin metabolic assays; CyQuant DNA-content; BrdU and EdU incorporation; LDH release; CellTiter-Glo ATP-based viability; trypan blue exclusion.

Pick by readout and throughput.

1. Metabolic. alamarBlue, MTS, MTT, WST-1. Cost-effective for routine.
2. DNA-content. CyQuant. Stable signal proportional to cell number.
3. ATP-content. CellTiter-Glo. Highest sensitivity, single endpoint.
4. Membrane integrity. LDH release. Measures cytotoxicity, not viability per se.
5. DNA synthesis. BrdU or EdU incorporation. Measures actively dividing cells.
6. Caveat. Always run cytotoxicity counter-assay in parallel; apparent growth inhibition can reflect non-specific toxicity. Confirm screening hits with a second assay using a different principle.

Elabscience covers comprehensive metabolic and viability assay kits. AkrivisBio provides apoptosis-pathway-resolved formats.