MTT Assay Kit (Cell Proliferation)

MTT Assay Kit ab211091 is an easy-to-use, non-radioactive, and high-throughput assay for measuring cell proliferation, cell viability and cytotoxicity.

The MTT assay protocol is based on the conversion of water soluble MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) compound to an insoluble formazan product. NB: MTT is also available as free molecule as Thiazolyl blue tetrazolium bromide (MTT), membrane-permeable dye ab146345 (Thiazolyl blue tetrazolium bromide).

Viable cells with active metabolism convert MTT into formazan. Dead cells lose this ability and therefore show no signal. Thus color formation serves as a useful and convenient marker of only the viable cells. The measured absorbance at OD 590 nm is proportional to the number of viable cells.

The MTT assay is a measure of the metabolic activity of the cells analyzed; the more metabolic activity in the sample, the higher the signal. This should be considered when interpreting the results of the assay.

MTT assay protocol summary:
- replace serum-containing media with serum-free media and MTT reagent in cell cultures
- incubate for 3 hr at 37°C
- add MTT solvent and incubate for 15 min
- analyze with microplate reader

Review our to learn about our kits to perform a , or . An alternative product, uses a similar principle to this kit, but without the need for the MTT solvent step. **How other researchers have used MTT Assay Kit ab211091** This MTT assay kit has been used in publications with a variety of cell types, including: HUVEC cells1, U2OS cells and Saos2 cells2, human PBMCs3, rat primary hepatic stellate cells4, DBTRG glioblastoma cells5, SKOV3 human ovarian cancer cells6, mouse vascular smooth muscle cells7, human iPSC-derived neuronal cultures8, primary bladder cancer cells9 References: 1-De Felice F et al 2019, 2-Zhang X et al 2019, 3-Schotterl S et al 2018, 4-Huang W et al 2015, 5-Tang XJ et al 2016, 6-Zhu Q et al 2017, 7-Ma S et al 2018, 8-Rane A et al 2018, 9-Maj M et al 2018