Antiproliferative effects of selenium compounds in colon cancer cells: Comparison of different cytotoxicity assays

A number of cytotoxicity assays are currently available, each of them using specific approach to detect different aspects of cell viability, such as cell integrity, proliferation and metabolic functions. In this study we compared the potential of five commonly employed cytotoxicity assays (WST-1, XTT, MTT, Brilliant blue and Neutral red assay) to detect antiproliferative effects of three selenium compounds, sodium selenite, seleno-l-methionine (SeMet) and Se-(Methyl)selenocysteine (SeMCys) on three colorectal cancer cell lines in vitro. Cells were exposed to the selected selenium compounds in the concentration range of 0–256 μM during 48 h. WST-1 and XTT failed to detect cytotoxic effect, with the exception of the highest concentration of selenium compounds tested. Conversely, the metabolic activity of selenium treated cells measured by WST-1 and XTT significantly increased in comparison to untreated controls. MTT, Neutral red and Brilliant blue assays were more sensitive and yielded mutually comparable results, with significant decrease of measured parameters in a concentration-dependent manner. To a smaller extent, the results were affected by the different chemical nature of the selenium compounds tested as well as by the biological properties of individual cell lines.