VivaFix™ Cell Viability Assays enable researchers to accurately discriminate between live and dead cells in fixed or unfixed samples by cell staining prior to flow cytometry, cell sorting and microscopy.
The proprietary cell staining components of VivaFix Fixable Viability Dyes covalently bind to free primary amines: in live cells, these fixable viability dyes bind to the cell surface primary amines. In dead cells, where the membrane is compromised, the dyes permeate the cells and also react with intracellular primary amines (Figure 1). Due to their greater content of accessible free amines, dead cells fluoresce more brightly than live cells, allowing live and dead cell populations to be easily distinguished.
Fig. 1. VivaFix Cell Viability Assay chemistry. A, live cell with VivaFix Dye bound to surface primary amines. B, dead cell with VivaFix Dye bound to surface and intracellular primary amines.
Key Benefits of VivaFix Fixable Viability Dyes
- Cell staining compatible with fixed and unfixed cells
- Provides unbiased discrimination between live and dead cell populations — at least 100-fold difference in fluorescence intensity
- Offered in a wide range of excitation and emission spectra to fit any multicolor experiment
Related Products
These DNA-binding cell staining dyes allow you to assess the viability of your cells: