Variation of cellular mitochondrial activity in culture: analysis by flow cytometry

Cytometric analysis of various cultured cells using fluorescent probes to stain mitochondria, in combination with other methods, has shown that mitochondrial activity is an essential part of cell cycle completion. Among the existing fluorochromes, Rhodamine 123 is most often used for analyses of growth and cellular differentiation, and the action of various compounds. These studies permit a better understanding of the role of the mitochondria in situ and especially of the interactions that occur between the cytoplasm and the nucleus. However, the development of this type of study is limited by the small number of specific fluorochromes available.