What is cell culture?

Cell or tissue culture refers to the growth and maintenance of cells derived from tissues of an animal, from insect to human, in an artificial environment often referred to as in vitro.

There are two ways to grow in vitro cell cultures;

1. Adherent cell culture - Cells are grown as monolayers in plastic dishes or flasks. Some cell types can be grown on gel-like substrates as multicellular aggregates to better mimic a physiological environmental stiffness.

2. Suspension cell culture – Cells are grown without adhesion contact to the substrates suspended in cell media. Generally, to ensure optimum cell growth, the suspension is agitated regularly.

Adherent cell culture is the most commonly used method of growing cells as it is able to be used across a wide variety of cell culture types. Suspension cell culture is useful as it can be easily scaled up for protein purification.

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