cell culture

cell culture

n.

1. The maintenance or growth of dispersed cells in a medium after removal from the body.

2. A culture of such cells.

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cell culture

the artificial culture of living tissue outside a living body. Animal cells were originally grown in culture as explant cultures, i.e. small pieces of tissue. If pieces of tissue are treated with enzymes such as trypsin, single cell suspensions can be obtained which will settle onto glass or plastic surfaces and grow to form a monolayer cell culture. Primary cell cultures can be passaged to form secondary cell cultures. Cells in culture can be passaged a finite number of times before reaching a crisis which can be compared with aging. The number of passages, before reaching crisis, has been termed the Hayflick limit and is related to the longevity of the species from which the tissue was originally derived. Within the Hayflick limit the cells are referred to as a cell strain. Cells that survive the crisis and continue to grow are referred to as a cell line. Cell lines can also be derived directly from cancer cells. There are many properties that distinguish cell lines from cell strains, including altered chromosome number, changes at the cell membrane, and reduced requirement for certain growth factors.