About Acti-stain™
The Acti-stain™ line of fluorescent phalloidins has been developed with an emphasis on creating exceptionally bright and stable probes at an economical price. Side-by-side comparisons with leading competing products demonstrate that you will enjoy savings while not sacrificing the quality of the stain when switching to an Acti-stain™ probe. Additionally, these probes are compatible with popular filter sets such as FITC, TRITC and Cy5. The combination of in-house manufacturing, stringent quality control and convenient packaging provides a great value. Give them a try and see for yourself.

Product Uses Include

• Stain F-actin in fixed cells
• Stabilize actin filaments in vitro
• Visualize actin filaments in vitro

Actin staining is very useful in determining the structure and function of the cytoskeleton in living and fixed cells. The actin cytoskeleton is a very dynamic and labile structure in the living cell, but it can be fixed with paraformaldehyde prior to probing or staining for actin structures.

Acti-stain phalloidins are the most well characterized phalloidins available. Tabe 1 describes their brightness, photostability, background and affinity constants to F-actin. Compare these performance characteristics to other fluorescent phalloidins and you will see the advantages of using Acti-stain™ for your actin staining requirements.

Table 1. Biochemical characteristics of fluorescent phalloidins

* = AFU's measured by quantitative cell imaging. ** = Measured in stained Swiss 3T3 cells in the absence of antifade.

For more information about protocols to fix and stain cells click here.

Manuals and MSDS

To view the Manuals and MSDS sheets of each product, please click on the links below:

Acti-stain 488 phalloidin (Cat # PHDG1)

Acti-stain 555 phalloidin (Cat # PHDH1)

Acti-stain 670 phalloidin (Cat # PHDN1)

Acti-Stain Citations

Takaya K, Okabe K, Sakai S, Aramaki-Hattori N, Asou T, Kishi K. 2024. Salicylate induces epithelial actin reorganization via activation of the AMP-activated protein kinase and promotes wound healing and contraction in mice. Scientific Reports. 14(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-67266-5.

Wang C, Zhao X, Zhao L, Wang Y, Jia Y, Zhang X, Ma W. 2023. PKCζ phosphorylates VASP to mediate chemotaxis in breast cancer cells. Experimental Cell Research. 433(2):113823. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yexcr.2023.113823.

Phillips AT, Boumil EF, Venkatesan A, Tilstra-Smith C, Bernstein AM. 2023. The formin DAAM1 regulates the deubiquitinase activity of USP10 and integrin homeostasis. European Journal of Cell Biology. 102(Chapter 10):151347. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejcb.2023.151347.

Boonrod K, Kuaguim L, Braun M, Müller-Renno C, Ziegler C, Krczal G. 2023. Identification of the Actin-Binding Region and Binding to Host Plant Apple Actin of Immunodominant Transmembrane Protein of “Candidatus Phytoplasma mali.” International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 24(2):968. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24020968.

Chang Y, Kong K, Tong Z, Qiao H, Hu Y, Xia R, Zhang J, Zhai Z, Li H. 2023. Aspirin prevents estrogen deficiency-induced bone loss by inhibiting osteoclastogenesis and promoting osteogenesis. Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research. 18(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13018-023-03710-y.

Bhosle VK, Sun C, Patel S, Ho TWW, Westman J, Ammendolia DA, Langari FM, Fine N, Toepfner N, Li Z, et al. 2023. The chemorepellent, SLIT2, bolsters innate immunity against Staphylococcus aureus. eLife. 12. doi:https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.87392.

Karvas RM, Zemke JE, Ali SS, Upton E, Sane E, Fischer LA, Dong C, Park K-M, Wang F, Park K, et al. 2023. 3D-cultured blastoids model human embryogenesis from pre-implantation to early gastrulation stages. Cell Stem Cell. 30(9):1148-1165.e7. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2023.08.005.

Park J, Kravchuk P, Krishnaprasad A, Roy T, Kang EH. 2022. Graphene Enhances Actin Filament Assembly Kinetics and Modulates NIH-3T3 Fibroblast Cell Spreading. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 23(1):509. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23010509.