I need to use a dead cell control for my viability assay. Do you have a protocol for killing cells for this?
Heat killing is commonly used. Place your cells in a tube in buffer and heat at 60oC for 20 minutes. You can also kill your cells by fixing them with ice cold 70% ethanol for 15 minutes. The ethanol-killed cells can then be stored at -20oC until needed, at which point you wash out the ethanol and replace with buffer.
Regarding the LIVE/DEAD Fixable Dead Cell Stain Kits, which can discriminate between live and dead cells using flow cytometry with one emission wavelength. Can these kits be used with microscopy?
This dye gives a dim surface label for live cells, but is internalized and gives a brighter signal for dead cells. Flow cytometry is a very sensitive technique and can easily distinguish between the two populations. Microscopy is not as sensitive and may not be able to distinguish the cells because of a less sensitive detector.