Measuring proliferation via cell culture medium - is it possible? (Mar/09/2007 )

when cells grow in medium they release some end products of metabolism: some acids, urea, carbondioxyde, etc.

what of these metabolic junk is to exploit for a simple test to measure proliferation? does anyone know an established and commonly accepted assay, or has any idea?

I think you may measure proliferation by placing your cells with BrdU. This product gets inserted into DNA while it is being synthetized. So since it is fluorescent (or detectable at least), you can visualise it by FACS. The more fluorescence means the more DNA synthesis, and thus more proliferation.