Cell health assay guide

Understand your options when you need a cell viability, cytotoxicity, proliferation, cell cycle, or apoptosis assay 

The analysis of cell viability, cytotoxicity, cell cycle state, cell proliferation, and cell death is critical to most cell-based studies. 

Understand your options, and choose the right assay to fit your experimental needs.

 Download our guide to cell health assays

Or read this online version of the guide.

Learn more with our resources:

Cell viability assay guide
Including MTT, MTS, resazurin, and similar assays, mitochondrial membrane potential-dependent dyes, esterase cleaved dyes, ATP and ADP assays, and assays that measure glycolytic flux and oxygen consumption.

Cytotoxicity assay guide 
Including LDH enzyme leakage assays, and membrane-impermeable dyes like 7-AAD.

Cell proliferation and cell cycle assay guide
Including assays using dye dilution, BrdU/EdU, and DNA staining dyes. These are used to monitor the growth of a cell population, detect generations of daughter cells, or analyze the cell cycle state of a cell population. You can use also these tests to assay cell viability.

Apoptosis assay/cell death analysis guide
Such as Annexin V, TUNEL, and caspase assays and CRISPR engineered apoptosis pathway cell lines.

Remember: no one method gives a perfect view of cell viability, proliferation, or cell death. It is almost always most effective to combine several different methods.