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Filipin III is workable with a 405 nm laser but as pointed out, bleaching can be 
a problem. We've had acceptable results with filipin in fixed cells.

Biotinylated beta-perfringolysin toxin is the only direct method that I know of 
for detecting cholesterol in fixed cells. 

It's not available commercially and despite several requests, I haven't been 
able to get hold of it.

Cholesterol reporters are increasingly important for our work so I may have to 
clone this myself. I'd be happy to make any reagents available.

here's the ref:

Iwamoto M, Morita I, Fukuda M, Murota S, Ando S, Ohno-Iwashita Y. Biochim 
Biophys Acta. 1997 Jul 25;1327(2):222-30. 


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