alternatives to ethidium bromide

[Bruno Cenni]

...Not say that one eat & drink EtBr, but there is an established method in
"apoptosiology" (eg. published in Methods Cell Biol 46, 1995, 153-185) that makes
use of the fact that only dead cells have membranes that are leaky for charged
molecules like EtBr (or the well known Propidium Iodide used for FACS
staining)...

But since similar compounds were used in the therapy of infectious diseases in
the old days, some limited toxicological data should be available.

Bruno

Vasos Panagiotopoulos +1-917-287-8087 Bioengineer-Financier wrote:

>           One of my clients who felt  the clock ticking on his career decided
> to skip  most EtBr safety precautions. When  I freaked out, he  said that the
> skin  is  mostly  dead  tissue  and  short-term  contact  with  EtBr  was  an
> over-exaggerated risk. That  was five years ago, and  despite my doubts about
> his ..actions,  he hasn't developed  anything. Please don't follow  his lead,
> but perhaps someone might wish to discuss his comments.