From: Alice L. Givan (Alice.L.Givan@Dartmouth.EDU)
Date: Fri Jul 28 1995 - 11:59:44 EST
Lots of good replies on DAPI! Thanks. Consensus (if you can call it consensus) seems to be that DAPI may or may not get into living cells -- depending on the type of cell (membrane characteristics/ glycoprotein pumps) and the patience of the investigator (that is, DAPI penetrates slowly at best). In some cell types and with some protocols , it doesn't penetrate living cells very well and therefore it can be used to differentiate living and dead cells. In cases where it does get into living cells, it will stain DNA -- but will probably not give as pretty DNA histograms as Hoechst 33342 (although some people report better success on this than others). Hoechst 33342 seems to be, by acclamation, the dye of choice for looking at ploidy in living cells. Questions were raised about DAPI not leaving the cells viable after the staining even if it does penetrate the membrane; this is obviously a question that needs to be considered (along with mutagenesis) for any dye that enters a living cell and binds to its DNA.... For fixed or permeabilized cells, consensus is that DAPI and PI both give good DNA histograms. Thanks for all your help. Alice Givan
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.6 : Thu Jan 01 2004 - 17:30:35 EST
