CELL CULTURE FACILITY

Since it was established in 1981, the Cell Culture Facility has made it easier, more economical and more effective to use mammalian cell cultures in research at Fox Chase. Procedures utilizing cell cultures are increasingly part of the molecular methods used to study normal and cancer cell proliferation, cellular regulatory mechanisms, and normal and abnormal development. As a result, cell culture has become a central technique in current molecular and cell biological research. The cell culture facility is used by more than three-quarters of all the Fox Chase laboratories, illustrating the demand for such technology and services at the Center.

The Cell Culture Facility offers a wide range of services and technical assistance. For many laboratories that are equipped for culturing cells, the facility provides basic support services, e.g., preparation of growth media, culture supplies and sterile reagents. Sterile workstations are available for investigators who need to conduct experiments using cell culture but do not have adequate culturing equipment of their own. For some laboratories, the facility also provides consultation in the design and evaluation of experiments.

The following services were provided during the past year: 3060 liters of growth media and 1200 liters of sterile reagents were prepared, 3970 vials of viable cells were banked in liquid nitrogen, and 597 samples were thawed for use. A cell bank is maintained, which presently holds about 14,970 samples. Mycoplasma screening was conducted on 67 samples, of which 4 were found to be infected. The facility propagated 137 established cell lines, developed an additional 98 primary cell lines, including 24 lymphoblastoid lines, 43 cell lines from polycystic kidneys, 16 kidney tumor lines, and 15 primary embryo fibroblast cultures. The facility sent 82 cell lines to other institutions and received 44 from outside sources. More than 90 liters of hybridoma or lymphoblastoid cells were grown in suspension cultures using a roller bottle apparatus. One hundred twelve cell lines were grown for harvesting DNA. Fetal bovine serum was performance tested for the ability to promote satisfactory growth rates of 6 sensitive cell lines. Based on these tests, the facility negotiated a price and reserved large amounts of the optimal production lot. Investigators purchased this serum from the reserved lot at our acquisition cost. During the past year, more than 350 liters of fetal bovine serum were dispensed in this way.

The Cell Culture Facility also provides technical support, cells, reagents, and supplies for establishing germline transmissible embryonic stem (ES) cells for developing gene knock-out mice. For this project, we have added two new lines of ES cells, bringing our inventory to five different cell lines. These cells, as well as feeder layer cells (mouse embryo fibroblasts) and all necessary reagents are in stock for immediate use. This year, we have added 220 vials of irradiated mouse embryo fibroblasts to the more than 400 frozen vials in stock. To date, four investigators have established their "knocked out" ES cell lines in our facility.

Illustrations or unpublished data in these reports should not be used without permission of the author.

Fox Chase Cancer Center

Scientific Report 1998