Bone Marrow Cells Stained by Azide-Conjugated Alexa Fluors in the Absence of an Alkyne Label

Thymidine analog 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridirie (EdU) has recently been introduced as an alternative to 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) for cell labeling and tracking. Incorporation of EdU into replicating DNA can be detected by azide-conjugated fluors (eg, Alexa-azide) through a Cu(i)-catalyzed click reaction between EdU's alkyne moiety and azide. While this cell labeling method has proven to be valuable for tracking transplanted stem cells in various tissues, we have found that some bone marrow cells could be stained by Alexa-azide in the absence of EdU label. In intact rat femoral bone marrow, similar to 3% of nucleated cells were false-positively stained, and in isolated bone marrow cells, similar to 13%. In contrast to true-positive stains, which localize in the nucleus, the false-positive stains were cytoplasmic. Furthermore, while true-positive staining requires Cu(i), false-positive staining does not. Reducing the click reaction time or reducing the Alexa-azide concentration failed to improve the distinction between true- and false-positive staining. Hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cell markers CD34 and Stro-1 did not co-localize with the false-positively stained cells, and these cells' identity remains unknown.