Anthony,

Others have made good suggestions, but I have a couple of questions.

Do you need to image the cells live?
If you want cell morphology, why is it preferable to get nuclear staining?

The compounds that Molecular Probes recommended are suited to some
organelle visualization, such as acidic compartments, and for
following endocytosis but seem like bad choices for what you want to
do.

You can direct your response to me directly if you wish.

Mario

>Hi,
>
>I wonder if anyone can help me.  I am looking for a general marker of cell
>morphology for looking at cultured cells using a BioRad MRC 1024 with Kr/Ar
>laser.  To fit in with the other fluors, it should emit in the FITC region
>or in the far red region.  Ideally it would be a nuclear stain (but we
>don't have a uv source), but not essentially.  I contacted Molecular Probes
>and they recommended some membrane probes (eg FM 4-64, RH 414), but I
>thought I would try for something a little cheaper if possible.  Has anyone
>any recommendations/experience?
>
>Finally, and possibly I should have asked this first, do people consider it
>necessary to have such a marker if attempting to monitor the fate of other
>compounds (ie plasmid DNA) in the cell?  I am thinking in terms of the
>ability to comment on relative intracellular location.
>
>Thanks for any help you can give
>
>Anthony McMahon

--
_____________________________________________________________________
Mario M. Moronne, Ph.D.
NanoMed Technologies
ph (510) 528-2400
FAX (510) 528-8076
Berkeley, CA
94706

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