Nile Blue A chloride

CAS: 2381-85-3. Molecular weight: 353.85. Absorbance (nm): 631. Nile blue A is a stain used in biology and histology. It may be used with live or fixed cells and imparts a blue color to cell nuclei. It is used in a variety of commercial DNA color staining formulations for DNA electrophoresis. As it does not require UV trans-illumination for visualization in an agarose gel as with ethidium bromide and other fluorescent stains such SYBR Green or Gel Red, it can be used to observe DNA as it is separated and also as a dye to aid in gel-extraction of DNA fragments without incurring damage by UV-irradiation. The derivatives of Nile Blue A are potential photosensitizers in photodynamic therapy of malignant tumors. These dyes aggregate in the tumor cells, especially in the lipid membranes, and/or are sequestered and concentrated in subcellular organelles.