Cascade Blue™ hydrazide, Trilithium Salt

The cell-impermeant, fixable, polar tracer Cascade Blue™ hydrazide can be used to investigate cell-cell and cell-liposome fusion as well as membrane permeability and transport through gap junctions or cell uptake during pinocytosis. This water-soluble tracer can be introduced into cells by whole-cell patch clamping, iontophoresis, osmotic lysis of pinocytic vesicles or comparable methods. The primary aliphatic amine of Cascade Blue™ hydrazide can also be reversibly coupled to aldehydes and ketones to form a Schiff base - which can be reduced to a generate stable amine derivative by sodium borohydride (NaBH₄) or sodium cyanoborohydride (NaCNH₃). Carboxylic acids of proteins and other water-soluble biopolymers can be coupled to this molecule in aqueous solution using water-soluble carbodiimides such as EDAC (E2247).