

Cell Culture
Get what you need and increase efficiency in your live cell imaging workflow with cell and tissue culture inverted microscopes from Leica Microsystems.
These easy-to-use microscopes allow you to configure an imaging solution for your needs with flexible condenser options and digital imaging documentation features; creating a solution that is just right for your lab.
Our experts on solutions for cell culture applications are happy to help you with their advice.
Leica cell culture microscope systems feature
- Easy-to-use operation that requires minimal training and maintenance so you can fully concentrate on your research
- Cool, color-safe LED illumination for constant color temperature through all stages of intensity
- Easy fluorescence (optional) to easily visualize your fluorescent markers
- HD imaging (optional) - connect the HD camera directly to a monitor or PC; providing high quality publication images
- Flexible working distance up to 80 mm for accommodating slides, petri dishes, multi-well dishes, and taller flasks
- Cell factory/hotel solution fits vessels up to 400mm tall

Find your Cell Culture Solution
When it comes to cell cultures there are a couple of differences between the solution´s instruments. If you are looking for a cell culture solution please answer these four quick questions.
Do you use fluorescence?
Do you require standardized results?
Do you need a camera?
Which vessels do you use?



Cell Classification
The appearances of cells
Lab grown animal cells can be distinguished due to several criteria:
- Their morphology is easy to identify in the microscope. Whereas fibroblast-like cells have a bi- or multipolar, elongated shape, epithelial-like cells show a polygonal outline. In contrast to the upper two, lymphoblast-like cells don’t grow attached to a surface but in suspension.
- The type of a cell can be subdivided into immortalized cells, primary cells and stem cells.
- The cell organization can range from simple 2D mono-culture through 2D co-culture, to 3D spheroids and organoids
Name | Morphology | Source |
COS | Fibroblast-like | African green monkey |
HEK 293 | Epithelial-like | Human |
CHO | Epithelial-like | Hamster |
MDCK | Epithelial-like | Dog |
HeLa | Fibroblast-like | Human |
Jurkat | Lymphoblast-like | Human |
A few examples of cell lines used in cell culture.
Materials
How to grow cells
Animal cells are cultured in all kinds of different vessels, ranging from tiny microfluidic devices used for basic research, through 96-well plates for screening, to cell culture flasks and cell factories for large scale pharmaceutical production.
Due to their disposable use, the majority of containers is made of plastic. Others are specifically adopted to microscopy applications and therefore have a glass bottom.
The medium for animal cell culture contains
- water
- an energy source
- amino acids
- vitamins
- and salts
Moreover it includes a buffer system plus a pH indicator to check a balanced pH.
Cell culture maintenance
What is the daily work?
Since the ingredients in the culture medium are consumed by the cells, it is necessary to renew it regularly. On this occasion cell cultures should undergo a visual check for confluency, healthiness and to detect potential microbiological contamination.
A characteristic of immortalized cell lines is their indefinite growth. That’s why they have to be split up once in a while (Passaging) and transferred to separate culture vessels.
Commonly, cultured cells are genetically modified before using them for an experiment. With the help of transfection, researchers e.g. add fluorescent markers to their protein of interest in order to visualize it with a microscope.

Microscopes – Basic Requirements
What tool do I need?
To manage the daily work of a cell culture lab a microscope is needed. This microscope has to have an inverse configuration. Such an inverted microscope features the objective below and the condenser above the specimen, enabling a near enough proximity of the objective to the cells and a large working distance above.
Due to the very low intrinsic contrast of animal cells, a cell culture microscope has to deliver contrast methods such as phase contrast. DIC (Differential Interference Contrast) doesn’t help here, since it can’t be applied together with the plastic vessels used in cell culture. A very good alternative for DIC is IMC (Integrated Modulation Contrast), which works with plastic containers and in addition doesn’t need special objectives or prisms. Moreover, a cell culture microscope should be easy to handle to prevent loss of time.
Leica cell culture microscopes offer you the ease of use and the flexibility in contrast methods you need for your individual purpose.
Microscopes – Advanced Requirements
What tool do I need?
A very common cell biological approach is to transfect cells with fluorescent markers for subsequent investigation with a research microscope. If you are dealing with fluorescent proteins, also your cell culture microscope needs a fluorescence option e.g. to control transfection efficiency.
For a meaningful documentation and standardization, the microscope should feature a digital camera and ideally the ability to record and digest the acquired data.
As space is an issue in cell culture labs, a cell culture microscope shouldn’t be too big e.g. to fit under a hood. Moreover, recent trends demand microscopes which are small and robust enough to be used even inside an incubator.
Brightfield | Phase contrast | DIC | IMC | Fluorescence | Magnification | Working Distance | Camera | |
Leica DM IL LED | + | + | - | + | + | PH: 5x to 63x IMC: 10x, 20x, 32x, 40x | 40 mm, 80 mm | + (free choice) |
Leica DMi1 | + | + | - | - | - | 10x, 20x, 40x | 40 mm, 50 mm, 80 mm | + (integrated) |
Microscopes dedicated to cell culture lab work.
Leica Cell Culture Products
Filter by Area of Application

FLEXACAM C1
12 MP stand-alone microscope camera to capture, document, and share images in seconds

THUNDER Imager EM Cryo CLEM
The THUNDER Imager EM Cryo CLEM enables precise identification of cellular structures and smooth, secure transfer of coordinates, images, and samples through your correlative workflow.

PAULA
Smart Cell Imager

Leica EM TP
With the automated EM TP Tissue Processor, ultrastructures of your tissue samples can be precisely prepared every time.

ARTOS 3D
Ultramicrotome for array tomography

DMi8 S Platform
For routine to live cell research

Leica EM ACE600
High vacuum sputter, carbon thread and e-beam coater

Leica EM ACE900
High-End EM Sample Preparation Freeze Fracture System

Leica EM UC7
Ultramicrotome for Perfect Sectioning at Room Temperature and Cryo

Leica DMi1
Entry level inverted microscope

Leica DM IL LED
Inverted Laboratory Microscope with LED Illumination

Microscopes for large Scale Production
The production of biomaterials, for example proteins, vaccines or antibodies requires cell culture in large vessels.
To cope with this requirements, such a cell culture microscope has to feature a large working distance and field of view. Furthermore it needs a high stability to hold large vessels or even stacks of vessels securely.
The Leica DM IL LED can be configured with an extra-long transmitted light illumination arm, giving you the free working distance you need for cell culture vessels up to a height of 40 cm.
Cell-based Assays
Live-cell applications
Cell culture is dynamic. Like any other biological system, cell growth and behavior are sometimes not easy to predict. That is why a permanent surveillance can be advantageous compared to cell culture checks at single time points.
This is where microscopes join the game which can be placed in the incubator and are able to monitor the cells around the clock. With this feature, a cell culture can be checked e.g. for confluency from any place in the world at any time.