Inline videos. See also:Category: Articles with embedded Videos..

Cell culture

From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.

Cells in culture, stained for keratin (red) and DNA (green)

Cell culture is the term applied when growing cells in a synthetic environment. Strictly speaking, this can apply to either prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells, though in practice cell culture has come to refer to the culturing of cells derived from multicellular eukaryotes, especially animal cells. Culture conditions (for example growth media, pH, temperature) vary widely for each cell type, and variation of conditions for a particular cell type can result in different phenotypes being expressed. This article is concerned with modern culture methods.^{[1] (http://www.biocrawler.com/encyclopedia/Cell_culture#fn_Bias)}

Contents

1 Concepts

2 See also

3 References and notes

4 External link

[edit]

Concepts

Cell culture methods can be applied to either free-living organisms, such as bacteria or eukarytotic microorganisms, or to cells removed from a multi-cellular tissue. Related to cell culture are tissue culture and organ culture, which refer to methods for growing pieces of tissue or entire organs removed from an organism in an artificial environment.^{[2] (http://www.biocrawler.com/encyclopedia/Cell_culture#fn_TissueCulture)} The culture of viruses requires the culture of cells as hosts for the growth and replication of the virus.

The key to success in culturing cells is to mimic the environment in which they found themselves before being transplanted to an artificial environment.

Some cells naturally live without attaching to a surface, such as cells that exist in the bloodstream. Others require a surface, such as most cells derived from solid tissues. Still others can live under either condition and exhibit different phenotypes depending on whether or not they are attached to a surface, such as yeast and many types of bacteria. Also, the substrate might or might not provide nutrients to the cells. In the case of most cells derived from tissues, nutrients are provided by a liquid broth that bathes cells attached to a surface.^{[3] (http://www.biocrawler.com/encyclopedia/Cell_culture#fn_airliq)} For bacteria and yeast, small quantities of cells are usually grown on a solid support that contains nutrients embedded in it, something like stiff nutritious Jello, while large-scale cultures are grown with the cells suspended in a nutrient broth.

[edit]

References and notes

⇧ At present, this article is biased toward the culture of mammalian cells.
⇧ "Tissue culture" has lost much of its original meaning in that it is now used generically for cell culture of mammalian cells or more broadly any cell type removed from a multicellular organism; however, when used without a qualifier it is usually interpreted as meaning mammalian cell culture. Ultimately, all cell culture applied to cells from multicellular organisms starts with the removal of cells from a tissue, which is likely where the blurring of the distinction between "tissue culture" and "cell culture" derives.
⇧ There are cells that require an "air-liquid interface" to grow properly; in this case the cells are often grown on a "raft" of organic material that floats on the surface of a nutrient broth and acts like a wet sponge, feeding the cells from underneath while their tops are exposed to the air.

[edit]