Apoptosis

Apoptosis assays are a widely used application in High Content Analysis because of their central role in cancer research and immunology. There are two main pathways for the induction of apoptosis: the death receptor-mediated pathway and the mitochondrial pathway.

Induction of either pathway will result in the activation of caspases, a class of intracellular cysteine proteases which are considered to be the central components of the apoptotic response. 

Imaging based analysis of caspase activation, mitochondrial function and nuclear fragmentation are typical high content apoptosis assays.

The figure above shows a schematic representation of two commonly analyzed apoptotic features in High Content Screening: nuclear fragmentation and caspase-3 activation upon apoptotic stimulus. The cells have been stained with a nuclear marker (red) and an antibody for caspase-3 (green) in various stages after treatment with an apoptosis inducing compound. From left to right: increasing dose of compound.

Our Apoptosis Solutions

Drawing on many years of experience and in-depth knowledge, we offer solutions for every throughput, a starting point for typical apoptosis assays and unlimited possibilities for customization:

Opera High Content Screening System

• High sample throughput with multi-color parallel image acquisition and over 100,000 data points per day

Acapella Image Analysis Software

• Unlimited possibilities for adding parameters and modifying readout
• Image analysis sequences for e. g. transition of G2 to M-phase (cyclin B1 staining), mitotic index (phosphohistone H3), S-Phase quantification (BrdU, EdU staining), DNA content

Operetta Compact High Content Screening System

• High speed with large field of view and large cell number captured with every image
• Ready to use protocols with reagent recommendations, ready- made image analysis sequences and documentation on how to customize

Columbus High Volume Data Management and Analysis System

• Enterprise level data management from assay development to high throughput screening seamlessly linking high content data, research data, in vivo imaging data, result management, screening statistics, biological and chemical data

cell::explorer Automated High Content Screening System

• Full environmental control and workstation with hand-over of plates from imager to incubator for short-term and long-term live cell assays

You may also be interested in: Live Cell Imaging.