“Birth of a Culture”-Source of Postpartum Anomalies

Summary

Current procedures for the preparation of cell suspensions from tissues as well as nutrient media for growth are empirically seiected. Methods for the seiection or separation of different kinds of cells are generally more sophisticated and based on sound physical or biochemical principles, although their application to cultures of differentiated cells needs to be more thoroughly explored. Isolation of such cells by cloning has definite advantages. Because basic knowledge about the nutritional requirements and intercellular matrices of both normal and cancer cells is at best fragmentary, the following lines of investigation were recommended for the immediate future: 1) improvement in procedures for cell dissociation; 2) determination of nutritional requirements for newly isolated, differentiated cells (media-promoting optimal growth and function are needed); and 3) development of standardized reagents for cell culture. With this information, the prospects of developing model culture systems from normal and cancer cells derived from various organ parenchyma would be realistic.