A suite of single cell assays, available from Guava Technologies, enables biologists to simply gain a complete and quantitative profile of the various stages of programmed cell death or apoptosis
Apoptosis is a highly regulated pathway that is important in normal developmental processes as well as many diseases.
Cells undergoing apoptosis are identifiable by a number of characteristics, including changes in mitochondrial membrane potential, transport of phosphatidylserine to the membrane surface, activation of caspase proteases, and DNA fragmentation in the nucleus.
Guava offers four apoptosis assays to assess these markers of early-, mid- and late-stage apoptosis.
The Guava Apoptosis Suite includes assays for assessment of membrane changes (Annexin V), activation of caspase enzymes, DNA fragmentation and monitoring changes in mitochondrial membrane potential.
Engineered for use on the Guava PCA, PCA-96 and EasyCyte systems and requiring only microvolumes of cellular samples, all four assays provide superior discrimination between apoptotic and non-apoptotic cells.
When used together, the Guava assays provide detailed profiles of cell populations in various stages of apoptosis.
The mix and read Guava Mitopotential and Guava Nexin assays can be especially powerful for rapid screening in 96-well microplates.
Each assay uses proprietary Guava software, and reagent kits optimised for use with each Guava cell analysis system.
Historically, apoptosis assays have suffered from being only loosely quantitative, as well as being subject to multiple wash steps where dying cells can be lost.
By comparison Guava's turnkey approach generates reliable and reproducible quantitation of apoptotic cells, is simple to use and has been shown to produce significant savings in both cost and productivity enabling scientists to complete projects more quickly.
Different cell types die at different rates with slightly varied death programs or apoptotic response, a suite of assays is therefore critical for fully characterising the mechanisms of biological responses.
By designing a comprehensive suite of apoptosis assays specifically for use with their PCA systems, Guava has brought the power of apoptosis studies to the laboratory benchtop.
Guava Technologies, a privately held biotechnology company, is the leading provider of on-demand, easy-to-use single cell analysis systems.
Guava Personal Cell Analysis (PCA) systems, including the Guava PCA, Guava PCA-96, Guava EasyCyte and EasyCyte Mini systems, are integrated, fully optimised, microcapillary cytometry systems with embedded absolute cell counting capability.
Used worldwide by the life sciences, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries, as well as clinical testing institutions (outside the United States and Europe), Guava's products have broad applications in scientific research and throughout the drug discovery and lead optimisation process, as well as for cell counting and optimisation of commercial biopharmaceutical production.
Guava offers a variety of assays and dedicated software modules for the Guava PCA systems, enhancing the system's overall ease-of-use.
A technical note entitled 'Monitoring apoptosis using four different assays on the Guava PCA system' describing the Guava Apoptosis Suite in further detail may be downloaded the company's website (linked).
