Biotium’s CellBrite™ NIR Cytoplasmic Membrane Dyes are near-infrared lipophilic carbocyanine dyes for labeling cytoplasmic membranes in live or formaldehyde-fixed cells.

• Near-IR lipophilic carbocyanine dyes
• Long-lasting staining with low toxicity and minimal dye transfer
• Useful for cell tracing, tracking, and transplantation studies
• Formaldehyde-fixable
• Stain live cells in culture medium, or stain formaldehyde-fixed cells

CellBrite™ NIR Cytoplasmic Membrane Dyes are novel near-infrared carbocyanine dyes for labeling the cytoplasmic membranes of living cells. Due to their long emission wavelengths, near-infrared cell membrane stains can be used to label cells for near-infrared small animal imaging studies for non-invasive imaging of cell migration and cell homing. The dyes have long 18-carbon hydrophobic tails and an additional water-soluble group. These unique chemical structure elements make the dyes easy to dissolve while providing highly stable cytoplasmic membrane staining, unlike traditional carbocyanine dyes like DiI, DiO, and DiR, which are often difficult to dissolve or prone to precipitation during cell staining.

CellBrite™ NIR dyes are non-toxic and stain cells very stable. They can be used to track cells for days to weeks. However, over time the dyes will be internalized by endocytosis, resulting in labeling of intracellular vesicles. By 24 hours after staining, the dyes will no longer outline the plamsa membrane, but will be localized inside the cell. The dyes can be used to stain formaldehyde-fixed cells. Live cells can be fixed in formaldehyde after staining as well, but the staining has poor tolerance for methanol fixation or detergent permeabilization. However, permeabilizing fixed cells before staining with CellBrite™ dyes can give good results. CellBrite™ NIR dyes do not stain yeast or bacteria.

The dye are supplied at 2 mM in DMSO; they typically are used at a final concentration of 1 uM for cell staining