Improving high-content-screening assay performance by using division-arrested cells.

As cell-based assays are used more commonly in robotic high-throughput compound screening, cells themselves have become critical reagents. Thus, it has become essential to produce cell reagents with high consistency and quality. We experimented with cells division-arrested with low-level mitomycin C treatment and demonstrate that they perform with better consistency than non-division-arrested counterparts in high-content screening imaging assays. We propose that for cell-based screening, it is possible to uncouple the cell production process from the screening process. Cells can be produced en masse, treated to become irreversibly division-arrested, and cryopreserved. These "ready-to-use" reagents can be thawed, plated, and used in screening with improved consistency and convenience.

Improving consistency of cell-based assays by using division-arrested cells.

In this article we describe the use of division-arrested cells for cell-based assays designed for high-throughput screening. Cells are the most critical and variable reagent for cell-based high-throughput screening. The robustness of robotic screening depends on the quality and consistency of cell reagents. We demonstrate that for most cell types commonly used for high-throughput screening, cells can be irreversibly division-arrested by mitomycin C treatment at doses that cause no apparent toxicity or obvious change to the cell signaling properties we measured. Our data also suggest that division-arrested cells perform favorably compared to regular growing cells in reporter and calcium flux assays, two platforms most commonly used in robotic screening. Division arrest technology effectively uncouples the process of cell production from robotic screening and brings the convenience of having quality-approved cell reagent on demand for cell-based high-throughput screening.