The WST-8 Cell Proliferation Assay Kit provides by far the easiest and most
sensitive means for quantifying cell proliferation and viability. The assay is
based on the cleavage of the tetrazolium salt WST-8 to formazan by cellular
mitochondrial dehydrogenase. The amount of the dye generated by activity of dehydrogenase is directly proportional to the number of living cells. The formazan dye produced by viable cells can be quantified by multi-well spectrophotometer (microtiter plate reader) by measuring the absorbance of the dye solution at 440 nm. The assay can be used for measurement of cell
proliferation in response to growth factors, cytokines, mitogens, and nutrients, etc. It can also be used for the analysis of cytotoxic compounds like anticancer drugs and many other toxic agents and pharmaceutical compounds. The new method is so simple, just add-and-read, requiring no washing, no harvesting, and no solubilization steps. It is faster, stable, and more sensitive than MTT, XTT, MTS, WST-1 based assays. The assay correlates well with the [3H]-thymidine incorporation assay.