The Use of Fluorescent Probes in the Study of Reactive Oxygen Species in Pancreatic Cancer Cells

The use of fluorescent probes can be an easy and quick method to analyze whether or not reactive oxygen species (ROS) are involved in a particular cellular process or the result of a particular drug treatment. ROS activate a variety of cell signaling and death pathways including apoptosis and necrosis (Raha and Robinson. Am J Med Gen 106:62–70, 2001). Here we describe a number of different probes, their specificities, advantages and limitations, as well as useful techniques important for their use.