Determination of Metabolic Viability and Cell Mass Using a Tandem Resazurin/Sulforhodamine B Assay

The identification of rapid, reliable, and highly reproducible biological assays that can be standardized and routinely used in preclinical tests constitutes a promising approach to reducing drug discovery costs and time. This unit details a tandem, rapid, and reliable cell viability method for preliminary screening of chemical compounds. This assay measures metabolic activity and cell mass in the same cell sample using a dual resazurin/sulforhodamine B assay, eliminating the variation associated with cell seeding and excessive manipulations in assays that test different cell samples across plates. The procedure also reduces the amount of cells, test compound, and reagents required, as well as the time expended in conventional tests, thus resulting in a more confident prediction of toxic thresholds for the tested compounds. © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.