Chapter 17 - Cell and Tissue Culture: The Base of Biotechnology

Abstract

A cell culture is basically keeping the cells taken out of a source in an artificial environment alive. In cell culture systems it is aimed that the cells that are in three-dimensional environment in tissues to be cultured and examined by providing appropriate circumstances under in vitro conditions. There are very common areas of use in cell cultures. It is possible to encounter with these kinds of studies in nearly all the fields. The areas in which the cell culture is used can be counted as the production of monoclonal antibody, vaccine, enzyme, hormone, interleukin, and some growth factors. Also cell culture studies serve too many fields such as toxicology studies, development of new drugs, and cell or stem cell therapy methods. Besides, nowadays especially in parallel with the improvements that are experienced in stem cell and the field of genetics, cell culture studies have come to an important place in biotechnology, cell therapy, and regenerative medicine field. Scientists around the world make use of cell culture techniques on a daily basis. Whether they happen to be working with primary cell cultures, secondary cultures, or cell lines, they all face many of the same problems: slow growth, spontaneous differentiation, evaporation, contamination, and a host of other issues that require troubleshooting. Consequently, cell culture studies need special working conditions, special equipment, and experienced staff.