RE: TUNEL Assay

From: Wang, Jimin (jiminw@biosource.com)
Date: Tue Jan 04 2000 - 15:01:51 EST


It is a very interesting question.  I also observed that
camptothecin-treated Jurkat cells had less autofluorescence than the
untreated Jurkat cells.  

Jimin Wang, Ph.D.
Biosource International
820 Flynn Road, Camarillo
CA 93012
Tel: 805 383-5233

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew D. Wells, Ph.D. [mailto:adwells@mail.MED.UPENN.EDU]
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2000 7:13 AM
To: cyto-inbox
Subject: Re: TUNEL Assay



>
>Dear Flowers,
>
>I have a question about the Tunel assay using flow cytometry. I treated my
>cells ( adherent cell line) with agents, Actinomysin D, Ceramide,
>Campothecin, before staining with dUTP-FITC (kit from boehringer mannhein)
>to detect apoptosis.What does mean when the label sample(negative sample)
is
>higher( histogram peak) than positive sample (TdT sample).
>I would appreciate any help anyone can give.


Soheila,

Although its unlikely that the following point will explain (all) your
problem, I thought it would be worthwhile to mention to you and the mailing
group that, in my experience, some drugs that one might use to induce
apoptosis are retained in the cells and can act as fluorochromes when hit
by the laser; i.e., your drug-treated, non-TdT-treated cells can fluoresce
quite brightly in FL1 and 2.  Again, this can't explain every case of high
background in TUNEL, but its important to be cognizant of this situation.
And why your TdT-treated would be less fluorescent than your control is not
clear to me (quenching of the background by the FITC?).
Hope this helps,

AW






Andrew D. Wells, Ph.D.
University of Pennsylvania
Department of Medicine
728 Clinical Research Building
415 Curie Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA  19104
(215) 573-1840 (office)
(215) 898-1951 (lab)
(215) 573-2880 (FAX)
adwells@mail.med.upenn.edu



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