The research on the Alamar Blue assay to evaluate cell proliferation and cytotoxicity in vitro.

Objective Study the feasibility to measure the proliferation of cells,or to establish toxicity of different chemical agents using the Alamar Blue assay.Methods Alamar Blue assay has been developed for quantitative evaluation of the proliferation of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells SMMC-7721 and the cytotoxicity of TRAIL,cisplatin,and hydroxycamptothecin.A comparison was made between the Alamar Blue assay and the traditional MTT assay.Results The cell density is linearly related to the Alamar Blue reduction using the Alamar Blue assay when the cell density was 3.12×10~2~2×10~4 per well(r=0.9989).The RSD of three different cell density were 1.41%(2×10~4 cells per well),3.88%(5×10~3 cells per well),4.87%(1.25×10~3 cells per well).The cell density was linearly related to OD_(490~620) using the MTT assay when the cell density was 3.12×10~2~2×10~4 per well(r=0.9981).The RSD of three different cell density were 1.44%(2×10~4 cells per well),4.07%(5×10~3 cells per well),8.27%(1.25×10~3 cells per well).Conclusion The Alamar Blue assay is a sensitive,economical,simple and nontoxic one-step procedure to evaluate cell proliferation and cytotoxicity.