Monitoring the Metabolic Activity of a Single Bacterial Cell Based on Scattering Intensity.

ABSTRACT: Cell activity is evaluated using the number of colonies formed on a medium or the number of live cells in a suspension or by staining nuclei with fluorescent dyes to determine whether cells are dead. However, the culture methods generally require extended culturing times, and damage to the cell membranes observed using fluorescent dyes is not necessarily related to cell survival or activity. Hence, accurately determining the activities of individual cells is impossible. Therefore, we developed a method for quantitatively evaluating the metabolic activities of single cells by focusing on the optical and chemical properties of formazan dye, i.e., 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT). The oxidized form of MTT is soluble and highly permeable to cell membranes, but

SUBMITTER: Tokonami A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12019773 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature