Cell proliferation and viability assay kits are often used to investigate the metabolic activity of cells in culture after exposure to stimuli or toxic agents. Additionally, increases or decreases in cell growth can be a sign that a cell culture has been contaminated or undergone genetic drift.

ATCC offers a cell proliferation assay, MTT, that utilizes the reduction of tetrazolium salts to enable the safe, accurate, and straightforward quantification of changes in cell metabolism or proliferation.

MTT cell proliferation assay kits have been optimized to expedite sample processing. The MTT reagent yields low background absorbance values in the absence of cells. For each cell type, the linear relationship between cell number and signal produced is established, thus allowing quantification of changes in the rate of cell proliferation.

The applications for this assay includes drug sensitivity, cytotoxicity, response to growth factors, and cell activation. The MTT assay is highly sensitive, reproducible, and adaptable to high-throughput screening.