2 Cell culture techniques
A. R. BAYDOUN
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The cell culture laboratory and equipment
2.3 Safety considerations in cell culture
2.4 Aseptic techniques and good cell culture practice
2.5 Types of animal cell, characteristics and maintenance in culture
2.6 Stem cell culture
2.7 Bacterial cell culture
2.8 Potential use of cell cultures
2.9 Suggestions for further reading
2.1 INTRODUCTION
Cell culture is a technique that involves the isolation and maintenancein vitroof
cells isolated from tissues or whole organs derived from animals, microbes or plants.
In general, animal cells have more complex nutritional requirements and usually need
more stringent conditions for growth and maintenance. By comparison, microbes and
plants require less rigorous conditions and grow effectively with the minimum of
needs. Regardless of the source of material used, practical cell culture is governed by
the same general principles, requiring a sterile pure culture of cells, the need to adopt
appropriate aseptic techniques and the utilisation of suitable conditions for optimal
viable growth of cells.
Once established, cells in culture can be exploited in many different ways. For
instance, they are ideal for studying intracellular processes including protein synthe-
sis, signal transduction mechanisms and drug metabolism. They have also been widely
used to understand the mechanisms of drug actions, cell–cell interaction and genetics.
Additionally, cell culture technology has been adopted in medicine, where genetic
abnormalities can be determined by chromosomal analysis of cells derived, for
example, from expectant mothers. Similarly, viral infections can be assayed both
qualitatively and quantitatively on isolated cells in culture. In industry, cultured
cells are used routinely to test both the pharmacological and toxicological effects
of pharmaceutical compounds. This technology thus provides a valuable tool to
scientists, offering a user-friendly system that is relatively cheap to run and the
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