Uses of the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK8)

Drug screening, cell proliferation assay, cytotoxicity assay, tumour drug sensitivity assay.

Advantages of the CCK-8

1. It is quick and easy to use and eliminates the need for washing cells, radioisotopes and organic solvents.

2. High detection sensitivity, even lower cell densities can be measured.

3. The Formazan dye produced by the CCK-8 method is water soluble and does not require the step of aspirating the culture solution and adding an organic solvent to dissolve it, so this reduces some of the error in the results.

4. The reproducibility of the CCK-8 method is better than that of the MTT method.

5. The CCK-8 Assay comes in 1 vial of ready-to-use solution, which does not need to be pre-prepared.

CCK-8 Q&A

Q: How is CCK-8 stored and how stable is it?

A: CCK-8 is highly stable and is valid for 2 years at -20°C and 1 year at 4°C under light-proof conditions. The normal colour of  CCK-8 is pink, if the colour has changed significantly, the quality may have changed.

Q: How is the cytotoxicity of CCK-8?

A: The toxicity of CCK-8 is very low and therefore the same cells can be used after the CCK-8 assay for other cell proliferation assays such as crystalline violet staining, neutral red staining or DNA fluorescence staining.

Q: Can I add CCK-8 without changing the culture medium?

A: In general, the medium can be used without changing. However, if there are redox substances in the medium, it is possible that errors may occur and the medium must be changed.

Q: How can I fix an OD that is too high in my experiments?

A: The incubation time after the adding of CCK-8 can be shortened. For example, the incubation time after the addition of CCK-8 reagent can be reduced from 2 hours to 1 hour. In addition, the number of cells can be reduced appropriately.

Q：If the OD is too low, how do I fix it?

A: We can take 2 methods: increase the number of cells appropriately ;extend the reaction time after adding CCK-8.

Q: Should I make a standard curve every time?

A: We recommend doing it every time. Although the cells are the same, the state of the cells is not always the same. For cells that are not in the same state, it is recommended that a standard curve is done each time.

Related Product

FY-C6514 Cell Counting Kit-8 CCK-8 Assay Kit