A Promising Method for the Determination of Cell Viability: The Membrane Potential Cell Viability Assay.
Eneko MadorranAndraž StožerZoran ArsovUroš MaverJan RožancPublished in: Cells (2022)
Determining the viability of cells is fraught with many uncertainties. It is often difficult to determine whether a cell is still alive, approaching the point of no return, or dead. Today, there are many methods for determining cell viability. Most rely on an indirect determination of cell death (metabolism, molecular transport, and leakage, to name a few). In contrast, we have developed a promising novel method for a "direct" determination of cell viability. The potential method assesses cell membrane integrity (which is essential for all viable cells) by measuring the electrical potential of the cell membrane. To test the assay, we chose two different cell types, blood macrophages (TLT) and breast cancer epithelial cells (MCF 7). We exposed them to seven different toxic scenarios (arsenic (V), UV light, hydrogen peroxide, nutrient starvation, Tetrabromobisphenol A, fatty acids, and 5-fluorouracil) to induce different cell death pathways. Under controlled test conditions, the assay showed good accuracy when comparing the toxicity assessment with well-established methods. Moreover, the method showed compatibility with live cell imaging. Although we know that further studies are needed to confirm the performance of the assay in other situations, the results obtained are promising for their wider application in the future.
Keyphrases
- cell death
- cell cycle arrest
- hydrogen peroxide
- high throughput
- induced apoptosis
- single cell
- solid phase extraction
- cell therapy
- fatty acid
- oxidative stress
- human health
- magnetic resonance
- climate change
- drinking water
- endoplasmic reticulum stress
- computed tomography
- risk assessment
- heavy metals
- signaling pathway
- mass spectrometry
- cell proliferation
- breast cancer cells
- clinical evaluation
- oxide nanoparticles