As functional aspects of amyloids as well as the dynamic processes involving amyloid formation and amyloid toxicity are of growing interest many researchers are interested to study these processes in living cells. Non-invasive techniques like fluorescence microsopy have been perfected in recent years for the study of living cells. Unfortunately, few non-toxic fluorescent dyes with high affinity to amyloids exist.
Amytracker have been shown to readily pass membranes of living cells such as dorsal root ganglion cells and human pancreatic islet cells and bind intracellular protein aggregates. No cytotoxic effects have been observed even with high concentrations of Amytracker. For use in living cells, we recommend to dilute Amytracker 1:500 in cell culture medium and incubate cells for 30 min under cell culture conditions. We developed the deep red Amytracker 680 specifically for live cell applications to avoid interference with autofluorescence common in living cells and tissues. Amytracker 540 is our green/yellow fluorescent tracer molecule specifically designed for superior uptake into cells and tissues.