Autophagy/Cytotoxicity Dual Staining Kit (MDC/PI)

Autophagy is a highly conserved degradation process within cells, which essentially provides energy for cell survival by degrading excess or abnormal components through the lysosomal system under nutrient deficiencies, environmental stress, or other stressful conditions. Abnormalities in the autophagy process have been implicated in a variety of disease states, including neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, metabolic disorders, and infections, among others. Autophagy studies can help uncover how cells adapt to and respond to environmental stresses and maintain homeostasis through self-degradation, providing direction for the development of new therapeutic strategies.

Autophagy/Cytotoxicity Dual Staining Kit (MDC/PI) provides two fluorescent probes, monodansylcadaverine (MDC) and propidium iodide (PI). MDC is currently the most commonly used fluorescent probe for the detection of autophagy, which can specifically bind membrane lipids to effectively label autophagosomes. Because MDC is an eosinophilic probe, some acidic membrane structures can also be labeled, so normal cells will also have a certain fluorescence background. PI can be used to label cells in advanced apoptotic or necrotic stages. Combining these two probes allows for simultaneous detection of autophagy and toxicity.

This kit can be used for the detection of cultured cells, not cryopreserved cells, fixed cells, fixed tissues, or tissue sections.

Figure 1: Staining result of different treatment with this kit
(Since there is no obvious cell necrosis in these treatments, all the PI staining is negative)