Dear All,
I have SH-SY5Y cells which has been 100% confluence or over (stationary or decline phases) in the culture vessel. The cells start to go oval and detach, but some of them are still attached. If I continue to subculture the cells and be careful to take care of them, not to letting them go beyond exponential phase again, can I still use these cells for protein signaling study? For example, treat with toxic drug and see apoptotic protein response.
Thank you
The short answer is YES. When cells continue to proliferate in vitro upon reaching confluency, it indicates that cells are transformed and have lost the ability to undergo contact inhibition-induced cell growth arrest. Therefore, in your case, cells that detach are likely to be more abnormal than those, which remain attached. Therefore, it is likely that your cell population is heterogeneous and contains at least two types of cells: cells that still exhibit some growth inhibition upon reaching confluency and cells that do not. Consequently, your cells should be usable for further studies.
- Badges
- Science method