Determination of cytotoxicity

Abstract

Cytotoxicity assays are used for drug screening and cytotoxicity tests of chemicals. Nowadays, various reagents are used for cell viability detection. They are based on various cell functions such as enzyme activity, cell membrane permeability, cell adherence, ATP production, co-enzyme production and nucleotide uptake activity. Many have established methods such as colony formation method, crystal violet method, tritium-labelled thymidine uptake method, MTT and WST methods, which are used for counting the number of live cells. Moreover, trypan blue is a widely used assay for staining dead cells. In this method, cell viability must be determined by counting the unstained cells with a microscope or other instruments. This chapter is a collection of all these methods to be followed by researchers in a sequential manner.