How long can a freeze vial of MCF7 cells or any other cell line be stored at -70 degree celsius before transferring to liquid nitrogen? Freeze vial for long term storage
As a graduate student in 1978 I, like most others, stored cells in a -60 freezer. Lower temp freezers were rare and incredibly expensive at that time and where I was you could only store in liquid nitrogen if you rented space in the sperm bank across the street, which you had to access by appointment only. Storing cells in liq N2 routinely didn't come until years later. When I was in a different lab, years later, I recovered a couple dozen drug resistant cancer cell lines (not MCF7, but very similar) from the same -60 freezer. All were viable, between 10% and 70%, after 8 to 10 years in storage. None were ever at a temp lower than -60. One important point, though: the -60 freezer was very well organized and cataloged and was for cell storage only. Access was very limited and no one was allowed to spend more than a minute retrieving cells (you were watched by the person in charge of the freezer!), so as to keep the temp constant at -60. Today, next to my office there is a -80 freezer where grad students stand in front of the open door, casually going through disorganized boxes looking for a vial of frozen buffer that doesn't need to be at -80 in the first place, and letting the temp go as high as -40 on a daily basis. I hear the alarm at least half a dozen times a day. Such a freezer clearly would be inappropriate for cell storage. On the other hand, I think that probably >90% of what is being stored in liq N2 in most labs nowadays doesn't need to be there.
Certainly months and probably years. We have stored ecoli with plasmids for tens of years in glycerol and enough are alive to grow up. You will have many cells and not all need to survive to grow again. The volume is important...too low a volume will allow the ice to sublime to the top of the tube if you store for months and the cells will suffer and they are better in the centre to rear of the freezer to avoid temperature fluctuations when the door is opened but certainly do not worry about a couple of weeks
Here in my lab we keep the cells for 24 hours i -80 and after that the cells are transferred to liquid nitrogen. Your cells are a cell line and it may be kept for longer time in -80 without major problem. The mammalian cells are frozen differently than bacteria.
Hi Ganesh, MCF7 cells are very hardy and you can keep them for 2-3 months in -80 if you use the appropriate freezing medium and freezing procedures.
As a graduate student in 1978 I, like most others, stored cells in a -60 freezer. Lower temp freezers were rare and incredibly expensive at that time and where I was you could only store in liquid nitrogen if you rented space in the sperm bank across the street, which you had to access by appointment only. Storing cells in liq N2 routinely didn't come until years later. When I was in a different lab, years later, I recovered a couple dozen drug resistant cancer cell lines (not MCF7, but very similar) from the same -60 freezer. All were viable, between 10% and 70%, after 8 to 10 years in storage. None were ever at a temp lower than -60. One important point, though: the -60 freezer was very well organized and cataloged and was for cell storage only. Access was very limited and no one was allowed to spend more than a minute retrieving cells (you were watched by the person in charge of the freezer!), so as to keep the temp constant at -60. Today, next to my office there is a -80 freezer where grad students stand in front of the open door, casually going through disorganized boxes looking for a vial of frozen buffer that doesn't need to be at -80 in the first place, and letting the temp go as high as -40 on a daily basis. I hear the alarm at least half a dozen times a day. Such a freezer clearly would be inappropriate for cell storage. On the other hand, I think that probably >90% of what is being stored in liq N2 in most labs nowadays doesn't need to be there.
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