Hi
I have noticed one thing in cell culture is that the cells love to attach themselves at the side of the the culture vessels more than at any other part of the flask. Also, the these cells appear to detach later as compared to the cells in other parts of the flask when trypsinised. Any reason(s) for that?
Thank you !!
the different phenomena that you observe are mainly due to the cohesion and adhesion forces provided by the culture medium, as well as the electrostatic fields created by the phenol residues of the plastic. the cells are rejected at the periphery of the culture flasks, which does not prevent them from growing, on the contrary. The same phenomenon is observed for the microculture plates where the cells are rejected at the outer edge of the culture wells, and participate in the edge effect well known to all of us. but in this case there is also evaporation effect which increases the phenomenon.
Hi Jean
Appreciate your answer!! So what u r saying is that what i have observed is unlikely in cell culture and most of the cells shud be rather displaced from growing in the outer edges of the culture dish/flask?
The second thing is that can u please elaborate little bit more on the cohesion and adhesion force provided by the culture medium
this is indeed the case, the cells grown in plastic petri dishes preferentially grow on the periphery thereof. The cells will grow starting at the edges, and the cells that will be found in the center of the petri dish floating are very often dead cells. This phenomenon is mainly due to the evaporation of the culture medium, causing a decrease in the thickness of the culture medium in the center of the culture unit. The cohesion and adhesion forces are the characteristic of the binding forces that bind the water molecules: this is reflected in particular by the meniscus made by the culture medium at the edge of the petri dish. In fact, there is more thickness of medium at this point, more cells and therefore better cell growth. All this is natural!
According to "Culture of Animal Cells' book by R. Ian Freshney this type of behaviour of the cells is called Meniscus effect. Moreover it says that it arises due to insufficient medium
The detachment observation is, I would guess, a cognitive illusion based on the fact that there are simply more cells in that area. I would posit that the _rate_ of detachment is likely similar to the more dispersed cell populations in the center of the culture vessel but the dispersed areas are apparently cleared faster because of the lower cell numbers. I find it hard to believe that dissociation enzymes, at the concentrations generally used, would be greatly inhibited by normally confluent cells.
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