TPE-MI (solution) 

TPE-MI (Tetraphenylethene maleimide) (solution) is a thiol probe for measuring unfolded protein load and proteostasis in cells (the excitation wavelength is 350 nm and the emission wavelength is 470 nm). TPE-MI can report imbalances in proteostasis in induced pluripotent stem cell models of Huntington disease, as well as cells transfected with mutant Huntington exon 1 before the formation of visible aggregates. TPE-MI also detects protein damage following dihydroartemisinin research of the malaria parasitesPlasmodium falciparum ^[1][2].
Solvent and concentration: DMSO: 10 mM

Guide (The following is our recommended protocol. This protocol is only a guide and should be modified according to your specific needs).
1 Stock solution^[1]
Dissolve TPE-MI in DMSO to make a 1 mM to 50 mM stock solution.
2 Preparation of dye working solution
1) Dilute the stock solution to a working concentration (typically 50 μM) in PBS before use.
Note: Please adjust the concentration of TPE-MI working solution according to the actual situation and prepare it before use.
3 Specific staining steps
1) Cell culture preparation: Seed cells (e.g. HeLa, Neuro2a cells) in a suitable culture container (e.g. 8-well μ-slides).
2) Washing: Wash cells with PBS and remove culture medium.
3) Staining: Add 50 μM TPE-MI working solution to the cells and incubate at 37 °C for 30 min.
4) Post-staining treatment:
Flow cytometry: Remove TPE-MI solution, digest the cells using appropriate methods (such as trypsin digestion, Accutase) , resuspend in PBS and centrifuge (120 g, 6 min) , discard the supernatant, and resuspend the cells in PBS for analysis.
SDS-PAGE detection: Lyse the stained cells with cell lysis buffer, determine the protein concentration, and perform fluorescence and Coomassie brilliant blue staining analysis after 12% polyacrylamide SDS-PAGE electrophoresis.

MedChemExpress (MCE) has not independently confirmed the accuracy of these methods. They are for reference only.

441.53

C₃₁H₂₃NO₂

1245606-71-6

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Room temperature in continental US; may vary elsewhere.

Please store the product under the recommended conditions in the Certificate of Analysis.

• [1]. Chen MZ, et al. A thiol probe for measuring unfolded protein load and proteostasis in cells. Nat Commun. 2017;8(1):474. Published 2017 Sep 7.  [Content Brief]

  [2]. Hu Q, et al. In Situ Monitored Vortex Fluidic-Mediated Protein Refolding/Unfolding Using an Aggregation-Induced Emission Bioprobe. Molecules. 2021;26(14):4273. Published 2021 Jul 14.  [Content Brief]