Chemical Properties
brown powder
Uses
Fluorescent stain for nucleic acids. An RNA polymerase inhibitorAcridine Orange acts as a lysosomal dye. It is used for cell-cycle studies. It plays an important role as a nucleic acid-selective fluorescent cationic dye, which is useful for cell cycle determination. Further, it serves as an inhibitor of RNA polymerase.
Uses
Acridine Orange, a cell-permeable metachromatic fluorescent cationic dye that intercalates DNA and RNA, is used in fluorescence and epiflouresence microscopy. Acridine Orange dye has been used to analyze mitochondria and lysosomal content by flow cytometry, characterize multidrug resistance, and measure changes in mitochondrial mass during apoptosis in rat thymocytes.
General Description
Acridine orange is a metachromatic fluorescent cationic dye that permeates the cell membrane and intercalates DNA and RNA. It allows for visual detection of nucleic acids on agarose and polyacrylamide gels.
Biochem/physiol Actions
Acridine orange (AO) is a fluorescent dye with two different staining characteristics. In fixed tissues, it acts as a metachromatic dye and differentially stains DNA (green) and RNA (orange). But, in living cells it acts as a pH indicator and produce brilliant orange-red in acidic condition. AO has been used to identify apoptotic cells in drosophila embryos. Acridine Orange staining method has been used to deliver more consistent data in the micronucleus test.
