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].
Solution Concentration: 10 mM

Guidelines (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]
TPE-MI storage solution is recommended to be stored at -20℃ or -80℃ in the dark after aliquoting.
2 Preparation of dye working solution
1) Dilute TPE-MI stock solution with PBS before use. The corresponding stock solution can be diluted according to the actual situation. Note that if the solvent is DMSO, the cytotoxicity of DMSO must be considered, and a solvent control should be prepared; if the solvent is pure water, the working solution needs to be filtered and sterilized before adding cells.
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]