Cell culture applications

Cell culture provides an easy and highly cost-effective tool for researchers in many different fields, being one of the major tools used in cellular and molecular biology. It provides excellent model systems for studying the normal physiology and biochemistry of cells (e.g., metabolic studies, aging), the effects of drugs and toxic compounds on the cells, and mutagenesis and carcinogenesis. It is also used in drug screening and development, and large scale manufacturing of biological compounds (e.g., vaccines, therapeutic proteins). The major advantage of using cell culture for any of these applications is the consistency and reproducibility of results that can be obtained from using a batch of clonal cells.

In order to ensure the cell line reliability, it is common to perform cell line authentication tests. These studies are mostly carried out by a regulatory entity, such as the American type culture collection (ATCC) in the US, and provides certainty about our cell lineage and its lack of contamination. The three ways to authenticate a cell line are STR analysis, cell growth curve analysis, and mycoplasma detection.