Download applications of animal cell culture

Tissue culture is the growth of tissues or cells separate from the organism. This is typically facilitated via
use of a liquid, semi-solid, or solid growth medium, such as broth or agar. Tissue culture commonly
refers to the culture of animal cells and tissues.
REQUIREMENTS FOR ANIMAL CELL CULTURE
Among the essential requirements for animal cell culture are special incubators to maintain the levels of
oxygen, carbon dioxide, temperature, humidity as present in the animal’s body.
SUBSTRATE FOR CULTURE
There are many types of vertebrate cells that require support for their growth in vitro otherwise they
will not grow properly. Therefore, a large number of substrates which may be adhesive or non-adhesive
types may be used as discussed below:
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Plastic as a substrate. Disposable plastics are cheaper substrate as they are commonly made
up of polystyrene.
Glass as a substrate. Glass is an important substrate used in laboratory in several forms such as
test tubes, slides, coverslips, pipettes, flasks, rods, bottles.
Palladium as a substrate. For the first time palladium deposited on agarose was used as a
substrate for growth of fibroblast and glia.
Following parameters are essential for successful animal cell culture:
a) Temperature- In most of the mammalian cell cultures, the temperature is maintained at 370C in the
incubators as the body temperature of Homo sapiens is 370C.
b) Culture media- The culture media is prepared in such a way that it provides1) The optimum conditions of factors like pH, osmotic pressure, etc.
2) It should contain chemical constituents which the cells or tissues are incapable of synthesizing.
Generally, the media is the mixture of inorganic salts and other nutrients capable of sustaining cells in
culture such as amino acids, fatty acids, sugars, ions, trace elements, vitamins, cofactors, and ions.
Animal cells are cultured using a completely natural media, or an artificial media along with some of the
natural products.
Natural Media:
In the early years of this in vitro cultivation of animal cell culture technique natural media are obtained
from biological sources were used. For example
1. Body fluid such as plasma, serum, lymph, amniotic fluid and much more are used. These fluids used as
animal cell culture media after testing for toxicity and sterility.
2. Tissue extract such as extract of liver, spleen, bone marrow and leucocyes also used as animal cell
culture media. But most commonly used tissue extract is from chick embryo.
3. Plasma clots are also used as media for animal cell culture and now they are commercially produced
as culture media.
4. Bovine embryo extract are also prepared using bovine embryos of up to 10days age, and are used as
animal cell culture media.
Artificial Media:
1. The artificial media contains partly or fully defined components.
2. The basic criteria for choosing a artificial media for animal cell culture are
The culture media should provide all the required nutrients to the cell.
3. Media should maintain the physiological pH at around 7 with the help of buffering system.
4. The animal cell culture media should be sterile, and isotonic to the culturing cells. The basis for the
animal cell culture media is the balanced salt solution, which are used to create a physiological pH and
osmolarity required to maintain the animal cells in vitro or in laboratory conditions.
5. For promoting cell growth and proliferation, many types of animal cell culture media are designed by
adding or varying different constituents. For example, serum containing media and serum-free media.
CULTURE PROCEDURE
Following step take place in animal tissue culture:
1) From a particular specimen, animal cell is extracted.
2) A special kind of medium is required for the animal tissue culture. Animal cell or tissue is placed in the
medium under aseptic environment.
3) For the animal tissue culture, specific temperature is required and cells are grown in the culture. For
example, the temperature required for the human cells to culture is 37 degrees which is the normal
body temperature.
4) Carbon dioxide is also required.
APPLICATIONS OF ANIMAL CELL CULTURE
The animal cell cultures are used for a diverse range of research and development. These areas are:
a) production of antiviral vaccines, which requires the standardization of cell lines for the multiplication
and assay of viruses.
b) Cancer research, which requires the study of uncontrolled cell division in cultures.
c) Cell fusion techniques.
d) Genetic manipulation, which is easy to carry out in cells or organ cultures.
e) Production of monoclonal antibodies requires cell lines in culture.
f) Production of pharmaceutical drugs using cell lines.
g) Chromosome analysis of cells derived from womb.
h) Study of the effects of toxins and pollutants using cell lines.
i) Use of artificial skin.
j) Study the function of the nerve cells.