Bioluminescent metabolite assays can facilitate the study of cellular energy metabolism. Measurements of key metabolites can provide useful information during studies of glycolysis and glutaminolysis.

Metabolite assays use selective dehydrogenases to produce NAD(P)H in proportion to the amount of metabolite present. NAD(P)H is detected using a Reductase enzyme and its Proluciferin substrate in combination with a luciferase enzyme to produce light.

 
Assays detect metabolites in a variety of samples with minimal sample preparation.

Sample types include cell lysates, cell culture medium, tissue homogenates, plasma, serum and other body fluids. The assays require minimal preparation steps with no need for centrifugation and spin columns.

Measure across a wide range of concentrations: broad linearity up to 3 logs (0.1 -100 μM) enables simple sample measurement.
Detect small changes: wide assay window with S/Bmax > 100-500 allows better discrimination of small changes in metabolite levels compared to colorimetric and fluorometric assays.
Advantages of bioluminescent detection: sensitive detection (1-5 pmole/sample).
Gain more information per sample: these assays are amenable to measuring multiple metabolites from the same sample. Multiplex with cell viability assays for normalization like RealTimeGlo, CellTiterFluor or CellTiterGlo.

Ready to use assays: 

Glucose Uptake-Glo^TM Assay

Glucose-Glo Assay^TM

Lactate-Glo Assay^TM

Glutamate-Glo Assay^TM

Glutamine/Glutamate-Glo^TM Assay

Other metabolite assays are in development.