Re: Live DNA staining

From: Derek Davies (daviesd2@icrf.icnet.uk)
Date: Wed Jan 27 1999 - 05:21:06 EST


Hi Ken, 

The way that we do this is to use Hoechst 33342. However you are right
about the toxicity effect. You generally need to play about with the
concentration of the dye and the staining time to get the balance right
between getting enough dye in to get a decent profile to enable you to
sort and not killing the cells. I would hazard a guess that the
concentration would be between 5-10ug/ml and the time no longer than 30
mins but it will vary with cell type.

Using Hoechst to define a population to be sorted is fine but using it as
a method of synchronising cycle phase is a little more problematical.
Cells do tend to lag a little after sorting - some dont like it at all, of
course - and the dye will take some time to be removed from the cells. We
have had some success using centrifugal elutriation to select cell cycle
phases so that is an alternative non-flow approach!

Derek



On Sun, 24 Jan 1999, KMCDONALD wrote:
>             Does anyone know a method of staining cells for DNA cell
> cycle analysis with the intension of sorting the various phases and
> culturing them. I can only think of using Hoechst staining (sterile) and
> then sorting, however I've heard that Hoechst can be toxic.
> Thanks for your responses in advance...Ken McDonald

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