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Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC)

Determine minimum inhibitory concentration
🎯 Difficulty ★★☆ Medium Duration About 1 day 🎯 Use Assess bacterial susceptibility to antibiotics, guide therapy and resistance research
📖 Principle
Culture bacteria in broth with drug gradients; the lowest concentration with no visible growth is the MIC
Below are 4 steps. Open each to see how to do it and add products to your shared list.

📋 Workflow

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1

Inoculum preparation

30 min
Pick colonies, adjust to McFarland standard (~1.5×10^8 CFU/mL) then dilute
💡 Tip Inoculum concentration affects results
⚠️ Caution Use fresh log-phase culture
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2

Drug gradient preparation

30 min
Serial-dilute antibiotic into a series of concentrations directly in 96-well plate
💡 Tip Range should cover expected MIC
⚠️ Caution Consistent technique for reproducibility
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3

Inoculate and incubate

16–24 h
Add diluted bacteria to ~5×10^5 CFU/mL final, incubate at suitable temperature
💡 Tip Include growth (no drug) and negative controls
⚠️ Caution Growth control verifies viability
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4

Read MIC

15 min
Visually assess turbidity, read lowest drug concentration without visible growth
💡 Tip Read per CLSI guidelines
⚠️ Caution Contamination or faint growth affects reading
🧪 Materials for this step (click to shop by spec/brand)

⚠️ 5 Common Beginner Mistakes

  • Non-standard inoculum skews MIC
  • Dilution error accumulates
  • Medium/incubation not matching CLSI
  • No control hampers reading
  • Contamination gives false resistance/susceptibility

❓ FAQ

+MIC vs MBC?
MIC inhibits growth; MBC kills 99.9% of bacteria.
+How to interpret R/S?
Compare MIC to CLSI breakpoints: below susceptible threshold=S, above=resistant.
+Why growth control?
Confirms inoculum viability so no-drug wells grow, validating the assay.

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Data authenticity: Product categories from JW Supply Chain standard taxonomy; method→step→product connected. Last updated: 2026-08-23 · v3.0