SCH1111 Fundamental Biomedical Techniques: Cell Culture & Stem Cells

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the fundamentals of cell culture, stem cell biology, and related laboratory techniques based on the lecture transcript.

Cell culture

The process by which cells derived from animal source are grown outside of the living organism under controlled conditions.

Tissue Engineering

The use of cell and tissue culture to generate artificial tissues and organs.

Primary cell culture

Cells taken directly from animal tissue and added to a medium; they closely mimic the physiological state in vivo but have a finite life span.

Senescence

The point at which primary cells stop dividing after reaching a certain number of doubling populations.

Standard Incubation Conditions

Commonly maintained at a temperature of $37\,^{\circ}\text{C}$ and $5\,\%$ $\text{CO}_2$.

Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS)

A common supplement in cell culture media that contains growth-promoting activities, peptide hormones, and buffers for toxic nutrients.

Explant cultures

A method where small pieces of tissue are attached to a culture vessel using plasma clots or fibrinogen until individual cells move from the tissue onto the substrate.

Enzymatic dissociation

The process of breaking up tissue using proteolytic enzymes such as trypsin and collagenase to destroy extracellular matrix and adhesion proteins.

Cell line

The stage of culture reached after the first subculture of a primary culture.

Continuous cell lines

Cell cultures, often tumor-derived or transformed in vitro, that have the ability to proliferate indefinitely given appropriate medium and space.

HeLa cells

The first successfully cloned human cells, derived from Henrietta Lacks in 1951, which were instrumental in developing the polio vaccine.

Cell strain

A subpopulation of a cell line positively selected from the culture via cloning or other methods, often having additional genetic changes.

Lymphoblast-like morphology

Cells that do not attach to a substrate and remain in suspension with a spherical shape.

Fibroblast-like morphology

Cells that attach to a substrate and appear elongated and bipolar.

Confluency

A visual estimate of the percentage of the growth surface covered by cells; the optimal range for subculturing is $70\text{--}80\,\%$.

Passage number

The specific number of times cells have been removed from the culture plate and re-plated (split).

Trypsin/EDTA

A combination used to detach cells: the enzyme cleaves peptide bonds in fibronectin while the chemical chelates calcium ions that inhibit the enzyme.

Hayflick’s Phenomenon

The limitation where cells divide normally for a specific number of passages before reaching a point where they stop dividing and die.

Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)

A cryoprotectant used in freezing cell suspensions to interrupt the ice lattice and partially solubilize membranes to prevent puncture.

Stem Cells

Immature, unspecialised cells that can reproduce themselves and differentiate into many different specialised cell types.

Potency

The measure of the number of different cell fates open to a specific cell.

Totipotent

Stem cells that can differentiate into all cell types, such as those in a morula.

Pluripotent

Stem cells, such as those from the inner cell mass of a blastocyst, that can differentiate into many cell types.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)

Adult differentiated cells that have been genetically reprogrammed to an embryonic stem cell-like state.

Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC)

Multipotent stromal cells found in bone marrow and placenta that can produce fat, muscle, bone, and cartilage cells.

Immunocytochemistry

A technique using labeled antibodies to identify the specific location of proteins within fixed cells under a fluorescence microscope.