Primary Cell Culture Flashcards
What is a primary cell culture?
- Technique by which cells from primary tissues or cell suspensions are grown under controlled conditions in vitro
- Cells will divide and or differentiate like normal cells, carrying out their normal function
Provide some examples of non-haemopoietic primary cultures
Liver, Muscle, Skin, Nerves, Fibroblasts, Endothelial
Provide some examples of haemopoietic primary cultures
- Stem, Progenitor cells
- T and B cells
- Monocytes, Macrophages
- Osteoblasts
- Dendritic cells
- Neutrophils
- Eosinophils, Basophils, Mast cells
- Erythrocytes
- Megakaryocytes
What can primary cultures be established from?
- Haemopoetic cells
- Giving rise to mature blood cell types
- Non-haematopoietic cells
What are the differences between cell cultures and cell lines?
- Primary cell cultures are directly derived from tissues
- Cell lines are transformed cells which may be genetically identical
- Interpatient variabillity
- In a cell line every cell is identical
- Finite lifespan (cant consistently maintain O2 and growth medium)
- A cell line will divide and reproduce itself exactly the same
- Cells divide and/or differentiate
- A cell line will divide and reproduce itself exactly the same
- Cells carry out normal funciton
- Because cell lines are transformed it may not have a normal function
By what process do we manipulate tissues to get a single cell suspension for primary cell cultures?
Disaggregation
List some disaggregation techniques
- Cells migrate out of explant
- Mechanical dissociation (mincing, sieving, pipetting)
- Enzymatic dissociation (trypsin, collagenase, hylaluronidase)
What cell does not need to be disaggregated?
Haematopoietic cells do not need to be disaggregated as they are already in single cell suspension
What are sources of stem cells?
- Bone marrow aspirate
- Umbilical cord blood
- Mobilised peripheral blood
Where does haematopoiesis occur in children?
Red bone marrow
Liver
Spleen
Where does haematopoeisis occur in adults?
In adults (after 20 years), the bone marrow retreats and haematopoiesis only occur in:
- End of long bones (e.g femur, humerus)
- Skull
- Vertebrae
- Sternum
- Pelvis
What is lifecycle of haematopoetic cells?
Pluripotent stem cells → Early progenitors → Late Progenitors → Immature Precursors → Mature Blood Cells
Why are you not able to see the lineage of progenitor cells?
- They are undifferentiated cells and therefore do not show any mature characteristics
- HOWEVER they are already commited to a specific lineage and make a specific type of cell
Stem Cells
pluripotent, give rise to all lineages, self-renew, rare cells, responsible for engraftment
Progenitor cells
Undifferentiated, not distinguished by morphology, committed to one or more lineages, detected in colony forming assays