About FITC

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Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) has an excitation peak at 495 nm and an emission peak at 519 nm. The name FITC is a misnomer in that the isothiocyanate is a reactive form of this dye. Once FITC is conjugated to an antibody, it is simply Fluorescein conjugated. FITC is one of the most widely used dyes for fluorescent applications, therefore most instruments come standard with a 488 nm laser and FITC filter set up. FITC is commonly conjugated to secondary antibodies and used in applications such as flow cytometry, immunocytochemistry, and immunohistochemistry. FITC is relatively dim, sensitive to photobleaching and it is susceptible to changes is pH. There are better performing alternatives to FITC, like Vio®Bright 515, Alexa Fluor™ 488, iFluor® 488, CF®488A and DY-488. FITC is a long-time generic dye with no sole manufacturer or trademark.

Alternative Dyes to FITC

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STAR 488 MaxLight 490 Chromeo 488 CoraLite Plus 488 VRDye 490 Fluorescein Oregon Green 488 Rhodamine 110 ATTO 488 CF488A Chromeo 505 FITC KIRAVIA Blue 520 NL 493 Oyster 488 PromoFluor 488P SureLight 488

Dyes similar to FITC based on emission

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ATTO 488 Acridine Orange Alexa Fluor 488 BCECF (525em) pH9.0 BCECF BCECF (Red em) pH5.2 BCECF AM BODIPY 500/510 BactoView Live Green CFSE CF503R Calcium Green CellBrite Steady 488 CellROX Green CellTrace Oregon Green CellTracker Violet Chromeo 488 Chromeo 505 Citrine FITC Plus CytoTrack Green DCF DMAO DyLight 488 EvaGreen EvaGreen Plus ExoBrite 490/515 EV Membrane Stain Flash Phalloidin Green 488 Fluo-3 Fluo-3 AM Fluo-4 GOLGI-ID Green GelGreen HiLyte 488 KIRAVIA Blue 520 Kaede (green) KikGR1 (green) Krome Orange LIVE 510 Live-or-Dye 488/515 Live/Dead Fix Aqua Live/Dead Fix Green LysoView 488 Mag-Fluo-4 MagDot 525 MemBrite Fix 488/515 MitoLite Green EX488 MitoView Green MultiDot 525 Newport Green DCF NovaFluor Blue 530 NucSpot Live 488 NucView 488 Nuclear Green Nuclear-ID Green Oregon Green 488 Oregon Green 488 BAPTA Oregon Green 514 Oyster 488 PhenoVue Fluo-4 AM, Calcium Indicator PhenoVue ROS-490, Total Oxidative Stress Indicator Premo Cameleon Calcium Sensor (Ca2+ bound) Premo Cameleon Calcium Sensor (Ca2+ free) PromoFluor 488P Qdot 525 ROS-ID Green ReadiLink 492-516 Rhodamine 110 Rhodamine 123 Rhodamine Green Riboflavin STAR 488 STAR 512 STAR GREEN SYBR Green Spectrum Green SureLight 488 Syto 16 Sytox Green TFAX 488 SE TFAX 488 TFP TO-Pro 1 TOTO-1 TSA Vivid 520 Thiazole Green Thiazole Orange Thiazole Orange Homodimer Thiazole Orange Iodide Topaz Venus ViaFluor 488 Viobility 405/520 Fixable Dye Viobility 488/520 Fixable Dye VioBright FITC VioGreen Vybrant DyeCycle Green YFP ZsGreen eFluor 520 Fix Viability eYFP iFluor 488 mAmetrine mCitrine pHrodo Green BDY FL Staurosporine