A method for growing and differentiating the C2C12 muscle cell line in the laboratory

Abstract

Skeletal muscle-related studies have recently been applied in the combat of obesity and metabolic disorders. Culture skeletal muscle cells in in vitro plays an important role in being a promising model for those researches. In the present study, the C2C12 skeletal muscle cells were grown and differentiated in in vitro. The C2C12 myoblasts were grown in Dulbecco’s modified eagle’s medium (DMEM) containing 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) for 4 – 5 days. The cells then reached confluent about 70% to 100% and the medium was shifted to DMEM plus 2% horse serum which leads the grown C2C12 cells becoming to differentiated myotubes. Myogenin mRNA levels were found to be significantly higher in the differentiated myotubes than those in the growing cells confirming the successful formation of the differentiated C2C12 cells. These results indicate that the C2C12 cell line is suitable for culture in in vitro to mimic a skeletal muscle microenvironment for further investigations.