What's the maximum amount of DMSO you can use in cell culture? - (Jun/05/2006 )

I'm trying to use a NOX inhibitor that is soluble in DMSO. When I dilute it in media to put it in my cultured cells is precipitating. What's the maximum amount of DMSO that I can out into the media before it becomes toxic to the cells?

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it would generally be a quite low level, probably less than 0.5%

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About 0.5% is about right. Depending on your end point, it would also be important to have a vehicle only control because I've found (often to my dismay) that DMSO alone can have significant effects at sub-toxic levels.

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Yeah, I've seen that too. That's how I know that it's the DMSO that is messing around with my cells and not the inhibitor. I'm going to try to go down to 0.1%, but I wanted some feedback on what other people had seen to work for them.

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Dear Niacin,

The % of DMSO that is cytotoxic to cells is generally 0.1% and above. This does depend upon the cells you are using. ie macrophages more resistant than epithelial cell lines, primary cells are exquisitely sensitive to levels of DMSO.

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