Propidium iodide staining is a laboratory technique that uses a fluorescent dye to label nucleic acids, most commonly to distinguish dead or membrane-compromised cells from living ones. Propidium iodide cannot pass through the intact membrane of a healthy cell, but it enters cells whose membranes are damaged and bin…
Propidium iodide staining is a laboratory technique that uses a fluorescent dye to label nucleic acids, most commonly to distinguish dead or membrane-compromised cells from living ones. Propidium iodide cannot pass through the intact membrane of a healthy cell, but it enters cells whose membranes are damaged and binds to their DNA and RNA by intercalation, producing a strong red fluorescence that can be measured. This property makes the dye a widely used reagent in cell biology, molecular biology, and flow cytometry for assessing cell viability, analysing the cell cycle, and detecting DNA, and it relies on the chemistry of how the dye interacts with nucleic acids. Within the journal's chemistry and applied chemical research scope, staining methods such as propidium iodide labelling exemplify how fluorescent reagents are designed and applied to probe biological samples and measure molecular and cellular properties. Understanding the chemical behaviour of such dyes underpins their reliable use in research and analysis. This page gathers encyclopedic information on propidium iodide staining together with peer-reviewed, open-access research relevant to chemical and analytical methods within the journal's broader scope.
1 peer-reviewed article, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.
The 1 article above has been cited 2 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.
A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Propidium Iodide Staining, linking to each citing work.