ALDHbr Assay Kit

By coupling a BODIPY-aminoacetaldehyde (BAAA) fluorescent substrate with a DEAB negative-control inhibitor, the ALDHbr Assay Kit from STEMCELL Technologies enables flow cytometry identification and viable sorting of cells with high aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) enzymatic activity. Cells retaining the brightest signal—commonly gated as SSC^lo ALDH^br—enrich for stem and progenitor populations in hematopoietic, neural, mammary, and solid tumor samples.

Because the substrate freely diffuses into cells and the fluorescent reaction product is retained intracellularly, sorted ALDH^br populations remain viable and can be cultured, transplanted, or used in downstream molecular assays. This supports applications such as cancer stem cell isolation and characterization of normal progenitor compartments. The DEAB inhibitor tube is run in parallel on each sample to set the background fluorescence gate, so the instrument threshold is established against a true enzymatic-negative control rather than an unstained reference.

The complete kit format provides assay buffer, fluorescent substrate, and inhibitor reagent, with components that should be protected from light and stored refrigerated as indicated in the product insert. Intended for research use only, the workflow is performed entirely on a standard flow cytometer and does not require fixation.