Cell & Organelle Stains

TO Iodide, also known as TO-PRO®-1, is a green fluorescent, cell-impermeant nucleic acid stain that can be used to stain dead or fixed cells.

1,6-Diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (DPH) is almost non-fluorescent in water, but it exhibits a strong increase in fluorescence after intercalation into membranes and can be used as a probe for viscosity, polarity and lipid order.

Fluorogenic mitochondrial stains for live cells that rapidly accumulate in mitochondria and can be imaged without washing.

Thiazole Orange Homodimer (TOhD), also known as TOTO®-1, is a cell-impermeant, high-affinity, fluorogenic green nucleic acid stain.

Thiazole orange (TO) is commonly used in reticulocyte analysis to stain residual RNA of blood cells, to stain DNA in agarose gels and capillary electrophoresis. Thiazole Orange stains the yeast nucleus, and is also able to stain bacteria and mammalian cells.

Nile Red is a red fluorescent neutral lipid stain.

Light-On LysoView™ 555 is a red fluorogenic lysosome dye with pH-dependent fluorescence. Light-On LysoView™ dye is unique among commercially available lysosomotropic dyes in that its fluorescence in cells is activated by exposure to UV excitation.

TMR biocytin is a cell-impermeant, fixable polar tracer that combines the tetramethylrhodamine (TAMRA) with biotin and an aldehyde-fixable primary amine.  Polar tracers are commonly used to investigate cell-cell and cell-liposome fusion as well as membrane permeability and transport through gap junctions or cell uptake during pinocytosis.

A fixable red fluorescent nerve terminal probe that is spectrally identical to SynaptoRed™ C2 (also called FM®4-64).

TMRE (Tetramethylrhodamine ethyl ester, perchlorate) is used to quantify changes in mitochondrial membrane potential in live cells.

HM1-43 is a fixable, activity-dependent fluorescent nerve terminal probe.

4-Di-1-ASP is a styryl dye that stains mitochondria of live cells. It has also been used to stain glioma cells in living brain tissues.

A fluorescent mitochondrial dye that can be used for ratiometric detection of mitochondrial potential changes.

DiOC₂(3) (3,3′-Diethyloxacarbocyanine, iodide) has been used for measuring membrane potentials in bacteria. The green fluorescent dye forms red fluorescent aggregates with increasing membrane potential.

The styryl dye RH795 is a fast-responding potentiometric probe that is primarily used for functional imaging of neurons. The dye is spectrally similar to RH414 (61016), but exhibits different physiological effects during staining. For example, RH414 causes arterial constriction during cortex staining, while RH795 does not (see references 1,2).

DiOC5(3) and DiOC6(3) are two of the most widely used carbocyanine dyes used for membrane potential measurements.