Cell Proliferation Kit II (XTT) Colorimetric assay (XTT based) for the non-radioactive quantification of cell proliferation and viability

Introduction The determination of cellular proliferation, viability and activation are key areas in a wide variety of cell biological approaches. The need for sensitive, quantitative, reliable and automated methods led to the development of standard assays. Such an example is based on the capability of the cells to incorporate a radioactively labeled substance ([3H]thymidine), or to release a radioisotope such as [51Cr] after cell lysis. Alternatively, the incorporation of 5-bromo-2 ́-deoxyuridine (BrdU)* in place of thymidine is monitored as a parameter for DNA synthesis and cellular proliferation in immunohistoand cytochemistry, in a cell ELISA and FACS analysis (kits and reagents for these applications are available from Roche Diagnostics).