What is a primary cell culture?

1 Answer
Sep 3, 2015

Primary cell culture refers to growing and maintaining of the selected cell type which has been excised from the normal parental tissue.

Explanation:

Primary cell culture refers to growing and maintaining of the selected cell type which has been excised from the normal parental tissue.

Mechanical or enzymatic methods(enzymatic digestion) are used while excising the tissue.

A key point to note here is that the correct environment needs to be strictly followed while culturing these cells in vitro ( the correct temperature, medium and nutrients etc) so that there is proper acclimatization of the selected cells to the external environment.

For example: if liver cells are desired to be cultured , the same growth conditions of the liver in vivo need to be replicated in vitro.

Primary cell culture is of two types:
Adherent cells - These cells require an attachment/substrate for growth.
Suspension cells - These cells do not require a substrate for growth, they are grown by suspension in an appropriate liquid medium.