Albandri ALFRAİDİ, Theara CENDİ FAGUNDES

Cell-based Cytotoxicity Methods

Cell-based cytotoxicity methods are an essential part of cancer research and drug discovery. Cancer is characterized by increasing in the cells proliferation and decreasing in cell death. Likewise, drugs interfere with many cellular functions that involve different cell death pathways. These changes in the physiology of the cells can be qualified with several available methods. Many assays rely on numerous cell functions from metabolic activity and cellular Adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP), membrane integrity, DNA cleavage, caspase activity, protein content and mitochondria changes. Some assays are considered suitable for high throughput screening due to the rapid evaluation of many samples in a cost-effective way, in addition to low sample and reagent consumption. Selecting the right methods is critical to generating meaningful results. There are many molecular signaling pathways involved in cell deaths and every assay gives specific insight into the process of apoptosis in the cells. This helps in the data interpretation for a better understanding of specific cell death mechanisms for in vitro analysis. This review is given an overview of the most commonly used methods to assess cell death.

Keywords:

cytotoxic assays in vitro, apoptosis,

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