Biology Stack Exchange
Biology Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [cell-culture]

Cell culture is the process of growing and maintaining living cells in vitro.

Cell culture is the process of taking living cells and growing them in vitro: under controlled laboratory conditions, isolated from their original organism and natural environment. Cells may be cultured directly from tissues extracted from the parent organism (known as "primary" culture), or from immortalised cell lines such as HeLa, of which a great variety are now commercially available.

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How long does antibiotic-dosed LB maintain good selection?

Various people in our lab will prepare a liter or so of LB, add kanamycin to 25-37 mg/L for selection, and store it at 4 °C for minipreps or other small cultures (where dosing straight LB with a 1000X stock is troublesome). Some think using it…
Nick T
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Pipetting damage to cells

I'm curious how much damage is potentially inflicted by shear stress by pipetting. I know that syringes used for stem cell injection can cause a lot of damage. However, to what extent does this happen with P20 and P200 pipette tips? Understandably…
bobthejoe
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Hoechst or DAPI for nuclear staining?

When is it best to use Hoechst vs. DAPI for nuclear staining? They seem to be very similar on paper. Are there situations where one is clearly preferable?
luispedro
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Why are cell lines frozen in vapor phase?

For most of the cell lines I've come across, ATCC recommends storing them in the vapor phase of liquid nitrogen. I'm taking that to mean any place above the level of liquid in the nitrogen storage tank. What is the reason for this? Under what…
rhill45
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Microinjection intestinal organoids

I am attempting to microinject small intestinal organoids, using the Eppendorf FemtoJet 4i microinjector and Femtotip capillaries, and have come across several issues. This is a new set up in our lab, and I am first to attempt it so I apologise for…
Lemity
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What is the effect of exendin on beta-cells?

Do you know if exendin, an analog of GLP-1 (glucagon like peptide-1), can be toxic for beta-cells? For example, what is the effect on INS1 or Min6 cells at a certain concentration or after 90 mins of incubation. And what is the impact on insulin…
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Gloves for Cell Culture?

I always wear gloves when I'm doing cell culture. Moreover, I always spray my gloves with ethanol to disinfect, so that I don't contaminate everything. However, I recently heard the argument that EtOH could impair the integrity of the glove, making…
stords
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What's the difference between growing cells in culture and cloning them?

The wikipedia page on Hela cells refers to George Gey being able "to isolate one specific cell, multiply it, and start a cell line." Later it says, "In 1955 HeLa cells were the first human cells successfully cloned." What's the difference between…
Tyler
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How much time do INS1-E and MIN6 cells need after splitting?

I am currently doing an experiment on cells to test the internalization of a protein. Normally, I seeded my cells the day before the incubation. This worked well for Hela, CHL or PANC1 cells. However, when I did the same with INS1-E and MIN6 (both…
kali281
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How can I resuspend a cell pellet without harming the bacteria?

When using a preculture with Ampicillin in my protein expression, I have to get rid of the preculture medium to avoid carrying over too much beta-lactamases that will destroy the ampicillin in the main culture. To do this I pellet the cells and…
Mad Scientist
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Which human cell lines do not express the GLP-1 receptor?

I need a human cell line that does not express the GLP-1 (glucagon like peptide-1) receptor. I'm working with HeLa cells, do those express the GLP-1 receptor? Which other cell lines exist that don't express this specific receptor? Are there any…
kali281
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Is there a karyotype database for human cell lines?

I'm looking for the karyotype of a specific cell line. Some karyotypes are well known, such as HeLa or some carcinomas, but some are very hard to find, such as LG2 (B cells). Is there a database dedicated to karyotypes of human cell lines?
Renaud
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Why is beta-mercaptoethanol often added to cell culture media

Many protocols suggest that beta-mercaptoethanol is necessary for growing cells. It is a reducing agent but what does it mechanistically do for your cells. When would one not add it.
bobthejoe
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What temperature should mammalian B-Cells be stored at outside of the incubator?

I'm working with murine B-cells. The general protocol is to keep cells on ice to keep them from dying but I've noticed that it makes these cells aggregate and precipitate out. I've heard suggestions that these cells should just be kept at room…
bobthejoe
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How can I keep HEK cells alive while expressing NMDA receptors?

I am trying to express functional NMDA receptors in HEK293 line cells for single channel recording experiments. The HEK cells are maintained in the standard way (Thomas & Smart 2005) and transfected with NR1 and NR2x subunit cDNAs and also GFP,…
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