Guidelines for cell viability assays

Abstract Recently, the interest in the application of cell viability assays has been increasing in various fields. Cell viability assays may be broadly classified as (a) dye exclusion assays, (b) colorimetric assays, (c) fluorometric assays, (d) luminometric assays, and (e) flow cytometric assays. Dye exclusion assays include trypan blue, eosin, congo red, and erythrosine B stain assays, whereas 3‐[4,5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl]‐2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT), 3‐(4,5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐5‐(3‐carboxymethoxyphenyl)‐2‐(4‐sulfophenyl)‐2H‐tetrazolium (MTS), 2,3‐bis‐(2‐methoxy‐4‐nitro‐5‐sulfophenyl)‐2H‐tetrazolium‐5‐carboxanilide (XTT), 2‐(4‐iodophenyl)‐3‐(4‐nitrophenyl)‐5‐(2,4‐disulfophenyl)‐2H tetrazolium,…