Post #ISSCR2025 product highlight series by LAB-A-PORTER
TheWell Bioscience: Xeno-free functional hydrogel and Live-Dead Assay Kit for tissue engineering
The journey from basic discoveries to clinical applications is often hampered by issues of reproducibility, predictability, and clinical relevance. Building robust in vitro and in vivo studies is essential for validating preclinical findings and ensuring their successful translation.
LAB-A-PORTER is committed to facilitating this by providing researchers globally with suitable reagents and tools. We support researchers on their preclinical research, from discovering drug targets and biomarkers to developing and testing in advanced in vitro and animal models, ultimately helping bridge the gap to clinical success.
In the following weeks, LAB-A-PORTER is going to showcase a series of products that have been highlighted in our booth at ISSCR 2025 Hong Kong, including tools for disease modelling, drug discovery, cell and gene therapy research and tissue engineering research.
This week, we are going to introduce one of our trusted supplier, TheWell Bioscience, their xeno-free hydrogel and live dead assay kit, used in 3D cell culture and tissue engineering research.
TheWell Bioscience: Provide xeno-free culture environment for 3D cell culture in tissue engineering research
VitroGel Hydrogel Matrix is a ready-to-use, xeno-free functional hydrogel for 3D cell culture research. VitroGel Hydrogel Matrix is an optimized formulation of multi-functional ligands and concentration to support a wide range of cell types for different applications. VitroGel Hydrogel Matrix closely mimics the natural extracellular matrix (ECM) environment to make cells feel more like at home. The hydrogel is room temperature stable, has a neutral pH, transparent, permeable and compatible with different imaging systems.
TheWell Bioscience: Live dead assay kit for live dead cell viability analysis used for 3D and 2D cell culture in in tissue engineering research
The Cyto3D Live-Dead Assay Kit is used to determine the live/ dead nucleated cells by using a fast one-step staining procedure for analysis on a dual-fluorescence system. This kit is recommended for viability analysis of cells cultured in 3D, 2D coating, and on monolayer.
Acridine orange (AO) and propidium iodide (PI), both nuclear staining (nucleic acid binding) dyes, are used in this kit. AO is permeable to both live and dead cells and stains all nucleated cells to generate green fluorescence. PI only penetrates the membranes of nucleated cells with compromised membranes and stains the dead cells to generate red fluorescence. Due to the quenching, when cells are stained with both AO and PI, all live nucleated cells fluoresce green, and all dead nucleated cells fluoresce red (the PI reduces the fluorescence intensity of the AO by fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)).
Non-nucleated materials such as red blood cells, platelets, and debris have no fluorescence and are ignored by fluorescence microscopes. Dual-Fluorescence Viability, using AO and PI, is the recommended viability analysis method for cell lines, primary cells, and stem cells.