Animal Cell Cultures Flashcards
What’s a cell culture?
Processe by which a prokaryotic, eukaryotic or plant cells are grown under controlled conditions
What’s tissue culture?
Term for removal of cells, tissue or organs from an animal and their placement in an artificial growth environment
Give 5 examples of products from cell culturing
Produce monoclonal antibodies and proteins
Viral vaccine production
Drug activity inverstigation
Cell therapy
Clinical investigation
Name 3 out of the 7 representative cell lines. (Bonus name all 7)
Cho - Chinese hamster ovary cells
3T3 - mouse fibroblasts
MEFs - mouse embryonic fibroblasts
MDCK - Madin-darby canine kidney epithelial cells
Vero - Verda Reno- kidney epithelial cells from an African green monkey
HK293- human embryonic cells
HeLa - immortalised cell line from a young women named Henrietta lacks suffered form cervical cancer
Explain what the CHO cell line is
Epithelial cells from ovaries of Chinese hamster
Created late 1950
Initially selected fro radiation studies due to low chromosome number 2n=22
Multiple cell lines from CHO developed from original - CHO-k1 , CHO-DXB11
CHO-K1 continuous line with short budding time 15s - can be cultured as either adherent or suspension cells -> used a lot in biotechnology
Explain the MDCK animal cel lines
development of flucelvax/ optaflu which is first mammalian cell based vaccine against influenza virus
Explain what vero cell line are and what they’re used for
Host cells fro virus production as they’re interferon-deficient
Widely used for vaccine production - fda approved
Explain HeLa cell lines and they’re use
First immortal human cells grown in lab
First human cells successfully clones
Used for research in cancer aids and gene mapping
How do you initiate a cell culture?
1) ExplaiCulture
- tissue removal (biopsy)
- transfer to glass/culture vessel
- add culture to medium till submerged
- transfer to controlled environment (37 deg, 5% co2 , 100% RH
- after few days cells move from tissue onto culture vessel substrate
- cells will begin to divide and grow(proliferation)
2) Enzymatic Dissociation
- remove tissue , mince into small pieces
- add proteolytic enzymes to digest
- cells released from tissue
- single cells transferred to culture vessels
- cells grow and divide
What are the 3 cell morphology + explain what they look like
Fibroblast- bipolar or multipolar, elongated, require attachment
Epithelial-like - polygonal with more regular dimensions, grow attached in discrete patches
Lymphoblast-like - spherically usually grown in suspension
What cell lines are anchorage dependant?
Most cell lines derived from normal tissue are anchorage dependant (grow only in suitable substrate)(tissue cells)
What type of cells are anchorage independent?
Suspension cells (blood cells)
How do transformed cel line grow?
As mono layer or as suspensions
Why is cell adhesion important?
Critical for adherent cell survival and grown
Cell adhesion molecules(CAMs)
How do you initiate an adherent cell culture?
1) seed cells in culture dish
2) provide nutrients, growth factors
3) cells grow to cover culture Durga e
4) once confluence reached growth slows down and eventually stops (contact inhibition)
5) subculture is required now
What are suspension cells and how do they work?
Free-floating I’m medium, no requirements for an attached substrate (blood cells)
When confluence reached, cells clump together and medium appears turbid => subculture then needed
What is confluence?
When adherent cells cover the adherent surface of culture dish
What is turbidity?
Cloudy, suspended matter
What is subculturing cells?
- necessary to keep cells in healthy growing state
- when confluence reaches and cells stop dividing subcultures needed (passage)
- when 80-90% confluence reached subculture needed to maintain proliferating state
How is cell passage or subculturing done with adherent cells?
Using an enzyme( trypsin) combined with ion chelator (ETDA) to break cell-cell and cell-substrate bonds made by cell adhesion molecules bound in the cell membrane.
How are suspension cells subcultured?
Removing part of the cell suspension and replacing it with fresh medium
What are the rules for subculturing?
- Use actively growing cells in log phase
- keep exposure to trypsin at a minimum
- handle cells gently
- must maintain optimal feeding regime and subculturing
- use low concentrations of cells to initiate subculture of rapidly growing cells and higher concentrations of slower growing cells
What is the limit of the amount of subculturing that can be done to normal cells ?
Ability to be split/continue to divide is limited
Normal cells limited number of times to be subcultured normally between 50-100 passages
What’s cellular senescence?
Phenomenon by which cells arrest their proliferation (hayflick limit)
What are the properties of a senescent cell?
- Large in size
- increase enzymatic activity for SA-beta-GAL
- up regulation of pro survival pathways to resist apoptosis and unique secretome
Explain the phases of the growth cycle of cells
1) lag phase (cell adaptation) - a drop in cell number as a result of adaptation to culture conditions
2) logarithmic phase (growth) - exponential increase in cell number
3) stationary phase (plateau) - equal number of cells dividing and dying
4) death phase - number of cells dying greater than cells dividing g
When is subculture carried out in the growth cycle?
Exponential phase
explain the properties of primary cells
- derived directly from excised tissue
- heterogenous, still represent parent cell types
Closest phenomenon to in Vigo - finite life span ( example - bone marrow derived from MSCs up to 1 passages)
- macrophages and neurons do not divide in vitro so have to be used as primary cultures
Explain the properties of cell lines?
- Subculturing of primary cells leads to generation of cell lines
- may be established only if cells can proliferate
- limited life spans - might become senescent (old)
- can be anchorage dependant or independent
What are continuos/transformed cell lines?
Cell lines that can be propagated indefinitely due to transformation (Timor cells, chemical treatments)