Pitfalls and other issues with the MTT assay

While the colorimetric assay commonly referred to as ‘MTT’ does provide an indication of effects of photodamage on mitochondrial enzyme levels, a careful analysis showed that the resulting data were not correlated with a clonogenic assay. While MTT data can be claimed to represent ‘cytotoxicity’, th...

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Main Author: David Kessel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-08-01
Series:Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1572100025002327
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author David Kessel
author_facet David Kessel
author_sort David Kessel
collection DOAJ
description While the colorimetric assay commonly referred to as ‘MTT’ does provide an indication of effects of photodamage on mitochondrial enzyme levels, a careful analysis showed that the resulting data were not correlated with a clonogenic assay. While MTT data can be claimed to represent ‘cytotoxicity’, this is an undefined term and appears not to be necessarily correlated with the object of anti-tumor therapy: tumor eradication. Use of this assay for assessing effects of treatment on viability are therefore unreliable.
format Article
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institution DOAJ
issn 1572-1000
language English
publishDate 2025-08-01
publisher Elsevier
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series Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy
spelling doaj-art-97e4b9a7deda4ad7baa01d465ba2ccfb2025-08-20T03:23:22ZengElsevierPhotodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy1572-10002025-08-015410470010.1016/j.pdpdt.2025.104700Pitfalls and other issues with the MTT assayDavid Kessel0Department of Pharmacology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI 48201, USAWhile the colorimetric assay commonly referred to as ‘MTT’ does provide an indication of effects of photodamage on mitochondrial enzyme levels, a careful analysis showed that the resulting data were not correlated with a clonogenic assay. While MTT data can be claimed to represent ‘cytotoxicity’, this is an undefined term and appears not to be necessarily correlated with the object of anti-tumor therapy: tumor eradication. Use of this assay for assessing effects of treatment on viability are therefore unreliable.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1572100025002327MTTClonogenicPhotodynamic therapy
spellingShingle David Kessel
Pitfalls and other issues with the MTT assay
Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy
MTT
Clonogenic
Photodynamic therapy
title Pitfalls and other issues with the MTT assay
title_full Pitfalls and other issues with the MTT assay
title_fullStr Pitfalls and other issues with the MTT assay
title_full_unstemmed Pitfalls and other issues with the MTT assay
title_short Pitfalls and other issues with the MTT assay
title_sort pitfalls and other issues with the mtt assay
topic MTT
Clonogenic
Photodynamic therapy
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1572100025002327
work_keys_str_mv AT davidkessel pitfallsandotherissueswiththemttassay