Our aim is to visualize the interaction of NK cells with an adherent cancer target cell. We want to stain the NK cells with an non toxic, non fluorescent vital stain to visualize the interaction of NK cells and cancer cells in a larger scale with light mircroscope. Therefore we are looking for an appropriate staining dye. Any suggestions?
Hi Christian, I don't see why you need a dye to visualize the vitality. If you are using a light microscope you can just go for the change in morphology.
With this said, I would rather recommend to do this study with fluorescent markers, since you get much more information out of it by staining the different cell types in different colors, include a fluorescent viability/apoptosis dye and maybe even a calcium dye that shows you when the NK cell makes direct contact with a cancer cell. There you would have 3 to 4 colors and most modern fluorescent microscopes can resolve this easily.
I am not aware of any non fluorescent viability dyes, but there are many dyes, kits and antibodies for fluorescent labeling.
Best of luck with the project! Feel free to ask if you have further questions.
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