Crystal Violet Staining: A Technique to Visualize Drug-Resistant Cancer Cells Using Colony Formation Assays

Abstract

Source: Mohr, L. et al., Generation of Prostate Cancer Cell Models of Resistance to the Anti-mitotic Agent Docetaxel. J. Vis. Exp. (2017)

In this video, we demonstrate a cell viability assay using a crystal violet staining procedure for chemotherapeutic drug-resistant cancer cells.

Protocol

1. Functional Characterization of Acquired Docetaxel Resistance by Colony Formation Assay NOTE: In this protocol, chemoresistance has been evaluated using colony formation assays. Alternative methods used to evaluate cell viability (i.e., MTS assays) can be used based on investigators' preferences. Plate 2,000 cells (DU145 or 22Rv1, both parental and Docetaxel-resistant) per well in 6-well plates, using 2 mL of media per well.</li…

Representative Results

Figure 1: Functional and phenotypic characterization of the Docetaxel-resistant cell models. Representative colony formation assays of parental and Docetaxel-resistant cells treated with the indicated Docetaxel concentrations for 72 h. Percentage of colonies for every treatment concentration is represented in the included graph. The experiments are triplicates and data represents the mean ± SD. Scale bars = 5 mm.

Materials

DU145 cells	ATCC	HTB-81
22Rv1 cells	ATCC	CRL-2505
Docetaxel	Selleck Chemicals	S1148	in DMSO (10mM)
6-well tissue culture plates	Falcon	353046
RPMI 1640 Medium	Gibco	11875093	Supplemented with 10% FBS and 1% Penicilin/Streptomycin
Foundation B Fetal Bovine Serum	Gemini	900208
1X Phosphate-Buffered Saline (PBS)	Corning	21-040-CM
Crystal Violet	Sigma-Aldrich	C0775
10% Formalin Solution	Sigma-Aldrich	HT501128