Intro Lab 2

IntroductionSince the discovery of cell culture techniques in the late 1800’s-1950’s (Wikipedia, cell culture) our knowledge and understanding of cell physiology, and medicine among other disciplines have increased tremendously. Cell cultures have long permitted scientist to observe and study physiological, biochemical and biological occurrences in an in vitro environment. The in vitro environment has many advantages to in comparison to studying cells in an in vivo environment including, but not limited to, the ability to study specific cell lines, and having the ability to control the cellular environment ((i.e. oxygen concentration, pH, nutrients etc.) (Laboratory packet CSUSB)). The primary purpose of the experiment conducted is to increase our understanding of cell culture techniques. There are multiple cell culture techniques each with a specific goal and function, giving the scientist different results depending on what they are specifically looking to study. The different cell culture techniques include primary, monolayer, suspension, and explant cultures. The technique used for the purposes of this experiment was the monolayer transformed cell culture technique.The second objective of the experiment is to apply our knowledge from the previous lab “ sterile technique.” Maintaining a sterile environment for the cells is of paramount importance to ensure the survival of the cells. In nature, there are numerous ways an organism can defend its body against pathogens for example, the skin, mucosal layers, and the immune system. In an in vitro environment however, the scientist strips the ability of the cells from defending themselves against pathogens by isolating them. Therefore, it is important that the sterile technique be implemented to prevent contamination or infection of the cells.Finally, to gain an understanding of how to successfully passage a culture of MSV-transformed Swiss/3T3 albino (murine sarcoma virus) mouse embryonic fibroblast. Cells naturally have a propensity to multiply, and the in vitro cell growth is fundamentally no different to how cells proliferate in an in vivo environment. As such, the cells that are grown on a dish also multiply leading to the overpopulation of the dish, which may cause apoptosis. To prevent the cells from dying a scientist must efficiently feed and ‘passage’ (transfer and split) the cells on two or more dishes, so that they may have adequate space and nutrients to grow correctly. This in an important technique to understand in any biologically based discipline. The care and of nurture of cells is the basis to any cell culture work performed in labs.So why is it important to understand and be able to implement cell culture techniques? Well, most pharmaceutical drugs used today originate from scientists performing physiological test of cells in an in vitro environment. Following the success of these experiment, scientist then begin to test on smaller animals with similar physiology to that of humans, eventually if all these processes prove to be successful, higher order animals are tested on, and finally a human trial will be carried out before the release of the drug onto our pharmacy shelves.Works CitedMichael, Chao Y. BIOL300 Cell Physiology Laboratory Manual and Syllabus. N.p.: n.p., 2010. Print.Arshad, Chaundry. "Cell Culture." www.wikipedia.org. N.p., 18 Oct. 2009. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .Lab 2: Cell Culture TechniquesRosa Gallardo (Introduction)Ashley Muller (Methods)Linda Galindo (Results)Cesar Garcia (Discussion)Biology 300 Friday Lab