Fluorometric Quantitation of Hydrolyzed DNA

One of the essential elements in conducting cell cycle studies or growth kinetics of cell cultures is the ability to quantitate DNA in large numbers of samples at a sensitivity that enables determination in small culture samples. The procedure described here is essentially that described by Janakidevi et al. (1) except that the assay was performed in microplates and read using a fluorescent plate reader. While many different enzymatic reactions can be standardized by DNA content, this method is particularly adapted for use in determining DNA synthetic rates in cultures labeled with [H]-thymidine.