Question

A researcher had two identical plates of Hela cells. The second plate was transfected with a GFP expression plasmid. The first plate was kept under an incubator without any treatment as a control. Six hours after the transfection, some cells on the second plate started to fluorescence and the researcher recorded the number of fluorescent cells. Then the researcher performed a trypan blue viability test on both plates. The results are shown below:

                                                        Plate 1             Plate 2

Trypan Blue Test      Blue                50                    100

                                    Clear              200                  150

Fluorescence Test     Green             ---                    75       

                                    Clear              ---                    175

1. What is the percent viability of plate 1? Show your calculation.
2. What is the percent viability of plate 2? Show your calculation.
3. Based on the viability of non-transfected and transfected cells, what can you conclude about the actual procedure of transfection?
4. Based upon the cells that are alive after the transfection procedure, what is the transfection efficiency of the procedure? Show your calculation.