The assessment of viability in isolated rat hepatocytes

Isolated rat hepatocytes are used in many metabolic studies, but the viability of these cell preparations is often not adequately established. The present study shows that ATP content is a more reliable index of metabolic viability than trypan blue exclusion. At some of the low trypan blue exclusion levels quoted in the literature, a high percentage of cell preparations is likely to be nonviable by the criterion of ATP content. We suggest that ATP content measured on initial cell preparations and at the end of all incubation procedures is essential for establishing cell viability for metabolic studies on isolated hepatocytes.