tunel-assay-cell-type-rat-pulmonary-arterial-smooth-muscle-cells

TUNEL assay is the cell death detection method where the biochemical marker of apoptosis is DNA fragmentation. The assay involves the microscopical detection of generated DNA fragments with free 3'-hydroxyl residues. in apoptotic cells using enzyme terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) which adds biotinylated nucleotides at the site of DNA breaks. Major challenges of this method involve proper access of the enzyme which could be hampered by poor permeabilization and/or excessive fixation with cross-linking fixative (common with archival tissue). This issue can be resolved by optimizing the incubation time with Proteinase K or CytoninTM.

Gene silencing through the use of small interfering RNA (siRNA) has become a primary tool for identifying disease-causing genes. There are several aspects for preparing and delivering effective siRNA to knockdown a target gene. The length of siRNA should be 21–23nt long with G/C content 30–50%. If a validated siRNA sequence for your target gene is not available, use siRNA generated against the entire target gene ORF. Always work with two or three different siRNA constructs to get reliable results. If you are not sure how much siRNA to use for a given experiment, start with a transfection concentration of 10-50 nM and use siRNA-specific transfection reagent to ensure efficient siRNA delivery in a wide range of cells.

Get tips on using RNeasy Mini Kit to perform RNA isolation / purification Cells - primary rat pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells

Get tips on using Recombinant Anti-alpha smooth muscle Actin antibody [E184] (ab32575) to perform Western blotting Smooth muscle actin

Get tips on using Lipofectamine® 2000 Transfection Reagent to perform DNA transfection Mammalian cells - Primary cells Rat pulmonary artery smooth muscle cell (pPASMC)

Get tips on using FuGENE® 6 Transfection Reagent to perform DNA transfection Mammalian cells - Primary cells Rat pulmonary artery smooth muscle cell (pPASMC)

Get tips on using Smooth Muscle Actin Antibody (B4): sc-53142 to perform Immunohistochemistry Mouse - SMA

Get tips on using Anti-alpha smooth muscle Actin antibody (ab5694) to perform Immunohistochemistry Mouse - SMA

Get tips on using anti-alpha-Smooth Muscle Actin mouse monoclonal, ASM-1 to perform Immunohistochemistry Alpha smooth muscle Actin - Mouse -NA- -NA-

Western blotting is a widely used technique to size separate proteins from a pool of cell or tissue lysates. The technique has 4 major steps: a) gel electrophoresis, b) blocking and treatment with antigen specific antibody, c) treatment with secondary antibody and finally d) detection and visualization. Though western blotting is a widely used technique, detection of specific proteins depends on several factors, the major ones are antibody concentration, incubation time and washing steps. Key points for obtaining clean blots are: always prepare fresh buffer solutions and optimize antibody concentration. Given the advent of high-throughput protein analysis and a push to limit the use of lab consumables, onestep antibodies are developed which recognise protein of interest and also contain a detection label.