PI staining live cells

From: Sraboni Ghose (sraboni.ghose@pki.unibe.ch)
Date: Fri May 07 1999 - 02:37:54 EST


Hello everyone,

Sraboni here. I'm new to the mailing list and a graduate student. I'd be
grateful for any experience/thoughts/ideas on the following:

I'm using a FACScan to do a promoter readout assay with GFP, which I
transfect by electroporation in a megakaryocytic cell line. As an intrinsic
readout for rate of transfection my electroporation medium has 5. 10 -6 M
propidium iodide, the reasoning being that in a population gated for live
cells only those that reseal their membranes after the electroshock will be
PI positive. The problem is that in the condition where cells haven't been
tansfected but still kept in PI overnight, the live cell population has
about 1% PI positive cells.
The Molecular Probes catalogue says that PI is intact membrane impermeable,
so live cells should not be stained at all. If, as someone here says, these
cells are necrotic, shouldn't they become smaller than viable cells and
move to the left on the FCS axis?

My question is: why are some live cells staining positive for PI? Could
anyone suggest another marker I could use as an intrinsic transfection
indicator which could be excited by an argon laser?

Thanks for your help.

Sraboni

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