aseptic technique and cell culture

Question 1

what does aseptic technique do?

Answer 1

Aseptic technique eliminates unwanted microbial contaminants when culturing micro-organisms or cells.

Question 2

how can a microbial culture be started?

Answer 2

A microbial culture can be started using an inoculum of microbial cells on an agar medium, or in a broth with suitable nutrients.

Question 3

how are animal cells grown?

Answer 3

Animal cells are grown in medium containing growth factors from serum

Question 4

what happens in culture?

Answer 4

In culture, primary cell lines can divide a limited number of times, whereas tumour cells lines can perform unlimited divisions

Question 5

what allows the number of colony forming units to be counted?

Answer 5

Plating out of a liquid microbial culture on solid media allows the number of colony-forming units to be counted and the density of cells in the culture estimated

Question 6

what is serial dilution needed for?

Answer 6

Serial dilution is often needed to achieve a suitable colony count

Question 7

what is a haemoctyometer used for?

Answer 7

a haemocytometer is used to estimate the cell numbers in a liquid culture.

Question 8

why is vital staining required?

Answer 8

Vital staining is required to identify and count viable cells