Cell Culture
Cell Culture is growing living cells in a lab dish with nutrients so scientists can study how they work.
A lab dish is like a baking tray lined with a warm, damp cloth. Tiny cells go onto the tray, and a thin broth feeds them like soup. The cells settle and grow, just like yeast spreads on dough. Over time, the tray fills with living cells to study.
Explaining cell culture by grade level
Scientists can grow tiny cells in small dishes. They add food and water to keep the cells alive. The cells split and make more cells. This lets scientists watch how cells grow and change.
Projects that explore cell culture
Cell culture also lets researchers compare how different cell types respond to the same chemical signals. In one experiment, three cell types — Graves' orbital fibroblasts, normal orbital fibroblasts, and dermal fibroblasts as a control — grow in petri dishes for two weeks. Treating each type with cytokines (immune signaling molecules) after the culture period reveals that the Th2 cytokine IL-4 significantly increases PGE2 levels.
Growing living cells in a lab dish also gives scientists a way to test how substances affect cell growth. In one experiment, human colon cancer tissue is placed into well plates at different nicotine concentrations and incubated for three days. By controlling every other variable, this cell culture approach can reveal whether a chemical speeds up or slows down cell multiplication.