[The usefulness of ruthenium red in dye exclusion test on cultured cells (author's transl)].

QUESTION: The reliability of statements and the reproducibility of results derived from experiments on cell cultures are dependent on the use of practicable methods for most objective assay of the state of the cells. The experiments were to clarify the following questions: 1. Is it possible to assay vital and nonvital cells by use of the dye exclusion test (FET)? 2. Are intact cells also stained by FET? 3. Will there be a possibility to make FET more sensitive to obtain more reliable statements?