Quantifying mitochondria

Martin Poot (MARTIN@probes.mhs.compuserve.com)
27 Mar 96 19:47:49 EST

Dear Dr. Micko and other Flow-ers,

I am now in the process of writing up a chapter for the Current Protcols in
Cytometry. As it happens, I am just done with "the mitochondria".

If you want to quantify mitochondria per se you best use MitoTracker Green
(Molecular Probes, Inc. # 7514). This dye is 488 nm excitable and gives
bright (and narrow) green fluorescence. Another dye from Molecular Probes,
CMXRos (# 7512) gives red fluorescence and responds to changes in
mitochondrial membrane potential. Both dyes are retained after fixation
with aldehydes.

I do not recommend rhodamine 123, because its cell staining is so
photo-unstable; JC-1 does funny things in my hands and appears to give a lot
of red background staining outside of the mitochondria. Molecular Probes,
Inc. may be able to give you more information (Tel: 541-465-8300; FAX:
541-344-6504).

I have no idea as to how Red 613 relates to mitochondria.

Hope this helps,

Martin Poot

martin@probes.mhs.compuserve.com


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