Maintaining cells in culture

 

   Cells are grown and maintained at an appropriate temperature and gas mixture (typically, 37 °C, 5% CO2 for mammalian cells) in a cell incubator. Culture conditions vary widely for each cell type, and variation of conditions for a particular cell type can result in different phenotypes.
  Aside from temperature and gas mixture, the most commonly varied factor in culture systems is the cell growth medium. Recipes for growth media can vary in pH, glucose concentration, growth factors, and the presence of other nutrients. The growth factors used to supplement media are often derived from animal blood, such as calf serum. One complication of these blood-derived ingredients is the potential for contamination of the culture with viruses or prions, particularly in medical biotechnology applications. Current practice is to minimize or eliminate the use of these ingredients wherever possible and use chemically defined media, but this cannot always be accomplished. Alternative strategies involve sourcing the animal blood from countries with minimum BSE/TSE risk, such as Australia and New Zealand, and using purified nutrient concentrates derived from serum in place of whole animal serum for cell culture.[5] Also the use of recently developed universal, fully defined and animal free alternatives like Serum-Free avoids these complications.

• Plating density