Cell culture: the use of cell culture and microfluidics has clear advantages

Microfluidics Application: Cell Culture

CELL CULTURE : As known, a single cell is what builds the human life, and the genetic material of all those cells in the human body hold the secret to inherited diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, Alzheimer or other complex diseases.

Taking this into account, Cell cultures and DNA can be established from blood or small fragments of tissue (biopsies).

In its simplest form of cell culture, it involves the dispersal of cells in an artificial environment composed of nutrient solutions, a suitable surface to support the growth of cells, and ideal conditions of temperature, humidity, and gaseous atmosphere. These systems are needed for aa researcher to measure the response of the cell’s alterations in culture, prospective drugs, the presence or absence of other kind of cells and viruses precisely.

Cell culture, what for?

The mass culture of animal cell lines is fundamental to the manufacture of viral vaccines and many biotechnology products. And the use of cell culture has clear advantages, such us:

• They allow precise and fine control of the environment: In a culture you can control all environmental factors: Physical-chemical (pH, temperature, osmotic pressure, levels of O2, CO2, surface tension ..) and physiological (hormones, growth factors, cell density, .)
• Characterization and homogeneity of the sample. Cultured cells from a cell line or a solid line are homogeneous and uniform composition morphology. You can easily obtain a large number of identical replicas, which the serious problem of the inherent heterogeneity of samples associated with the use of experimental animals is exceeded.
• It means an economic saving in the use of reagents or drugs to study because when done in small volumes, and with a direct access of cells to drug, concentrations required are much lower than in the whole animal.
• Ethical issues: Biomedical research involves each year the sacrifice of many thousands of animals for experimentation. The cell culture cannot always replace the test ‘in vivo’ but it is a valid alternative in many situations.