Rapid Fluorometric Quantification of Bacterial Cells Using Redsafe Nucleic Acid Stain



Khalili E¹ ; Hosseini V¹ ; Solhi R¹ ; Aminian M^{1, 2}
Source: Iranian Journal of Microbiology Published:2015

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Numerous procedures in biology and medicine require the counting of cells. Direct enumeration of Colony Forming Units (CFUs) is time-consuming and dreary accurate cell counting on plates with high numbers of CFUs is error prone. In this study we report a new indirect cell counting method that was developed based on the use of Redsafe fluorometric assay. The usefulness of Redsafe, a nucleic acid stain, in liquid medium is based on the binding of the fluorescent dye to DNA. Materials and Methods: Redsafe fluorom tric assay was evaluated in comparison with MTT colorimetric assay as a colourimetric assay for enumeration of bacterial cells. Results: Obtained results showed that fluorometric assay threshold for LB grown E. coli is 6×104 CFU/ml. Redsafe fluorescent assay can be used as a rapid and inexpensive method for bacterial enumeration and quantification with increased sensitivity. Conclusion: The sensitivity of the Redsafe fluorometric assay for detection and enumeration of bacterial cells was 2-log-unit more than that was observed for the MTT assay. © 2015, Tehran University of Medical Science. All rights reserved.