Cell culture Products
Cell culture is a set of biology techniques used to grow cells outside their organism (ex-vivo) or their original environment.
The cells cultured can be :
- Cells recently removed from an organism (biopsy). We then speak of primary culture and primary cells. These cells cannot be kept in culture indefinitely because they have a limited division capacity (limited number of divisions).
- Immortalized cells or cell lines. These cells have an unlimited capacity of division. These cell lines can be cancer cells, healthy cells made artificially immortalized or stem cells.
Animal cells are generally cultivated in a medium that provides them with all the essential elements for their growth. For this, flasks, boxes or culture plates are used depending on the quantity of cells desired and the applications. The culture media are then placed in incubators at a temperature of 37°C and in a very humid atmosphere with a controlled CO2 content (5%) in order to get as close as possible to the physiological conditions.
There are 2 types of cell culture: 2D culture and 3D culture. The 2D culture consists in cultivating the cells in a single layer while the 3D culture aims at reproducing the cellular structures present in the body.
