Article
Considerations and Technical Pitfalls in the Employment of the MTT Assay to Evaluate Photosensitizers for Photodynamic Therapy
Registro en:
CARREÑO, Edith Alejandra et al. Considerations and Technical Pitfalls in the Employment of the MTT Assay to Evaluate Photosensitizers for Photodynamic Therapy. Applied Sciences, v. 11, 2603, 16 p, Mar. 2021.
2076-3417
10.3390/app11062603
Autor
Carreño, Edith Alejandra
Alberto, Anael Viana Pinto
Souza, Cristina Alves Magalhães de
Mello, Heber Lopes de
Pons, Andrea Henriques
Alves, Luiz Anastacio
Resumen
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) combines light, a photosensitizing chemical substance, and
molecular oxygen to elicit cell death and is employed in the treatment of a variety of diseases, in cluding cancer. The development of PDT treatment strategies requires in vitro assays to develop new
photosensitizers. One such assay is the MTT 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium
bromide developed in 1983 and widely used in PDT studies. Despite the exponential growth in the
number of publications, a uniform MTT protocol for use in the PDT area is lacking. Herein, we list
and standardize the conditions to evaluate the photosensitizer methylene blue (MB) in glioblastoma
and neuroblastoma cell lines. In addition, we review technical pitfalls and identify several variables
that must be taken into consideration in order to provide accurate results with MTT. We conclude
that for each cell line we must have a dose-response curve using the MTT assay and good controls
for the standardization. Additionally, the optimal values of the time and cell density must be in
the linear range of the curve to avoid errors. We describe all relevant points and outline the best
normalization techniques to observe the differences between treatments.