TMRE-Mitochondrial Membrane Potential Assay Kit (ab113852)

Thank you for contacting us. Our lab uses:

BD PureCoat™ Microplates
black/clear, polystyrene
96-well, amine
Cat#354717

The recommendation is for clear bottom, black wall microplate that (a) cells will grow on and (b) is compatible with plate reader.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Thank you for your inquiry. I heard back from the lab regardingthese two distinct dyes that both measure mitochondrial membrane potential. TMRE stains mitochondria only when there is a membrane potential. JC-1 is slightly different in that it has distinct emission spectra depending on whether mitochondria have high or low potential. TMRE can be measured in a spectophotometer, fluorescent microscope or flow cytometry. JC-1 can be measured in a spectrophotometer. Details are in the respective protocol booklets. https://www.abcam.com/ps/products/113/ab113850/documents/ab113850%20Protocol%20(Website)%20v2.pdf https://www.abcam.com/ps/products/113/ab113852/documents/ab113852%20protocol%20final%20v2%20(website(.pdf For you, wewould recommend TMRE with analysis on a flow cytometer. Flow cytometry is both sensitive and amenable to very few cells. I hope this information helps. Please contact us with any other questions.

The samples should be read immediately after the 15-30 minute incubation with TMRE. Since the cells are live, as the health of the cell declined the signal from the dye would also diminish.

For another positive control, CCCP is suitable (5-50 μM CCCP for 30 to 60 minutes at 37ºC).

It all depends on the sample (embryos vs. explant vs. whole work). We have only worked with this dye using tissue culture cells (monolayer or suspension). If the samples are dissociated cells then TMRE labeling should work. Otherwise, we don’t know how well or deeply the dye can penetrate across cell layers (e.g. into tissues or embryos).


The dye for measuring the potential in the kit is species independent, so it is more a matter of the sample type.

We have no experience in using TMRE to stain isolated mitochondria from any source – it is a tricky proposition as you would need intact/non-damaged mitochondria which retain membrane potential therefore we wouldn't recommend this.

As for imaging tissue stained with TMRE, this is also tricky. Flow cytometry is almost certainly out due to the need for single cell suspension – which will be very difficult for most tissue types. For microscopy I suppose it is possible with the proper microscope set up and the ability to adapt the live tissue to microscope stage constraints (e.g. thin slices.)

However, I would like to stress that this kit is only really for mitochondria labelling in intact cultured cells.