Hydroxyethyl disulfide as an efficient metabolic assay for cell viability in vitro

► Cell viability assays have a variety of practical and technical limitations. ► Our findings establish the use of hydroxyethyl disulfide (HEDS) to quantify cells. ► HEDS quantified metabolically active live cells better than other assays. ► Cell toxicity produced by various agents was rapidly determined by the HEDS assay.