section of flow cytometry scatter plot showing both live and dead cell populations circled  

Dead cells often give false positive results, as they tend to bind non-specifically to many reagents. Therefore, removing dead cells from your flow cytometry data is a critical step to ensure accurate results and analysis. Molecular Probes® cell viability assays for flow cytometry help researchers distinguish live and dead cell populations more accurately than only using forward and side scatter characteristics. These products offer:

  • A broad range of color options, compatible with most instrument configurations
  • Different types of viability assays, designed to fit your experimental design

See also viability assays for fluorescence imaging and microplates
section of flow cytometry histogram showing two population peaks  
  • LIVE/DEAD® Fixable Dead Cell Stain Kits
section of flow cytometry histogram showing two population peaks  
  • SYTOX® Dead Cell Stains
  • Classic DNA-binding dead cell stains
  • CellTrace™ Calcein AM dyes
image of microscopic view of cells stained with two colors  
  • Membrane Integrity Viability Kits
  • Metabolic Activity Viability Kits
  • Bacterial Membrane Potential Kits
section of flow cytometry scatter plot showing live and dead cell populations  
  • Membrane Integrity Yeast Viability Kit
  • Metabolic Activity Yeast Viability Kit

See other related viability assays for flow cytometry:

Apoptosis & viability scientific posters

Poster Presented Year
Monitor Caspase 3/7 Activity without Cell Fixation: A Novel Apoptosis Reagent from Molecular Probes CYTO 2013
A Novel Violet-Laser Excitable Ratiometric Probe for the Detection of Membrane Asymmetry Breakdown during Apoptosis CYTO 2010
Dead Cell Stains In Flow Cytometry: a Comprehensive Analysis CCS 2009
A Simple, Fast and Quantitative Single-Step Dead-Cell Indicator for Flow Cytometry MSC 2009

Viability and cell counting, reusable slide

Resources

Protocols

BioProbes® Journal of Cell Biology Applications—Related Articles

Molecular Probes® Handbook

New Cell Analysis Support Center
Find tips, troubleshooting help, and resources for your cell analysis workflow.

For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.