Tissue culture plasticware

Figure 2. The attachment kinetics of adherent BCE cells, O BHK-21 cells, + and nonadherent U-937 cells, , were compared directly on Cell-Tak adhesive (Figure 2A) and uncoated tissue culture plasticware (Figure 2B).

Tissue culture plastic can very gradually undergo further oxidation as it ages. The tissue culture surface eventually reaches a plateau of oxidation, and there is no known shelf-life restriction on tissue culture plasticware produced by plasma modification. In a practical sense, tissue culture plasticware can be stored without any known degradation. 

Another area that has seen considerable advances is that of the physical environment for cell growth. Glassware has almost entirely disappeared from most tissue culture laboratories, to be replaced by an enormous, and expensive, range of plasticware. This has enabled the scientist to derive more sophisticated culture vessels and has led to the manufacture of three-dimensional culture systems and microcarriers. An added benefit has been the reliability and reproducibility of culture systems and, as a result, the avoidance of variability and contamination... 

Some primary and fastidious cell types will not attach and grow on regular tissue culture surfaces and require a protein coating to divide and become fully differentiated. In addition to polylysine and polyomithine, a variety of proteins that are derived from extracellular matrix are commercially available. Fibronectin, laminin and collagens are available as reagents and also as precoated plasticware. 

While tissue culture is becoming more and more a science, it is still an art and, as such, the same rules of trial and error still apply the surface needed depends on the cell type. It is best to start with regular tissue culture-treated plasticware and then to proceed to the more complex biocoatings, realizing that this is a complex factor analogous to changing media and serum. All three systems - serum, media and coating - need to be balanced in that case. 

Tissue-culture-treated plasticware We routinely use NUNC, Coming, and Falcon plastic ware. 

CEF cells are very sensitive to the type of plasticware used. In our experience, they preferentially adhere to and grow best on tissue-culture dishes supplied by Griener, Coming, and Nunc. 

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