J Med Microbiol 56 (2007), 733-737; DOI: 10.1099/jmm.0.46915-0
© 2007 Society for General Microbiology
ISSN 1473-5644
Use of a colorimetric assay to measure differences in cytotoxicity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains
Jorge Castro-Garza1,
Hugo B. Barrios-García1,2,
Delia Elva Cruz-Vega1,
Salvador Said-Fernández1,
Pilar Carranza-Rosales1,
Carmen A. Molina-Torres3 and
Lucio Vera-Cabrera3
1 División de Biología Celular y Molecular, Centro de Investigación Biomédica del Noreste, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Monterrey, NL, Mexico
2 Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, San Nicolás de los Garza, NL, Mexico
3 Servicio de Dermatología, Hospital Universitario José E. González, Monterrey, NL, Mexico
Correspondence
Jorge Castro-Garza
jorge.castro{at}biomedicas.net
Received 25 August 2006
Accepted 3 March 2007
Several techniques have been used to quantify the cytotoxicity produced by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli on cell monolayers; however, they are semi-quantitative or time consuming. Herein, a method based on crystal violet (CV) uptake by THP-1 cell monolayers is described. This colorimetric method quantifies the cytotoxic effect as a function of the number of remaining cells after the infection with M. tuberculosis. Since this micro-organism is not stained by the dye, it does not produce a background that affects absorbance readings. As determined by CV assay (CVA), M. tuberculosis strain H37Rv destroyed 10.5 % of THP-1 cell monolayers at 24 h and 50.52 % at 72 h, while M. tuberculosis strains lacking the complete phospholipase C locus produced a reduced cytotoxic effect. The damage estimated by microscopy corresponded to the effect quantified by CVA. The results show that the use of CVA is a rapid, sensitive and reliable quantitative assay to measure the cytotoxicity of different M. tuberculosis strains.
Abbreviations: CV, crystal violet; CVA, crystal violet assay; PLC, phospholipase C; WST-1, 4-[3-4(iodophenyl)-2-(4-nitrophenyl)-2H-5-tetrazolio]-1,3-benzene disulfonate.
Copyright © 2007 Society for General Microbiology.