Cell Culture

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

A few examples of cell lines used in cell culture.

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.

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.

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.

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.