Monthly Archives: March 2016
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- March 11, 2016
Choosing which media to use with your primary cells can be daunting. Whether you are replicating a formula from a publication, optimizing your own supplemented classical or nutrient media, or purchasing commercially available specialty media, it is important to understand how this choice will affect your primary cultures, and subsequently your research.
Many researchers working with cell lines commonly use classical and nutrient media, which is sufficient for cell line culture. Primary cells, however, often require additional nutrients for good performance. It is important to remember the difference between cell lines and primary cells, and how these differences affect nutritional requirements. Cell lines are typically very proliferative, are well-adapted to 2-dimensional culture, and tend to be more resilient to culture conditions. Conversely, normal primary cells are taken from their 3-dimensional host tissue and transferred to 2-dimensional culture, are less proliferative than cell lines,
