Tetrazolium salts

[ahillar at your-servername.Lan1.UManitoba.CA]

In article <1994Nov20.151140.1 at husc3.harvard.edu> jplin at husc3.harvard.edu writes:
>From: jplin at husc3.harvard.edu
>Subject: Tetrazolium salts
>Date: 20 Nov 94 15:11:40 EST

>A recent PNAS paper (Marcello et al., 91:8994-8998) uses the 
>tetrazolium salts colorimetric method to compare "viability and
>metabolic activity" of cells...  

>Does anyone out there know how this procedure works and how
>sensitive it is believed to be?

>Thanks!

>jeff

Tetrazolium salts (usu. nitroblue tetrazolium, p-iodonitrotetrazolium, etc.) 
are common tissue staining reagents that form insoluble formazan dyes upon 
reduction. They can also be used in enzymatic assays due to their high 
extinction co-efficients (I've used NBT and p-INT in the course of my own 
work). Check out volume one of Bergmeyer's "Methods in Enzymatic Analysis" for 
more info, including, I think, the limits of their sensitivity (should be at 
least in the micromolar range).

Alex.

A. Hillar
ahillar at bldgwall.lan1.umanitoba.ca