We are currently culturing immortalized renal proximal tubules (RPTEC/TERT1) at passage 1. The cells are adherent, and so grow in clusters, but strangely, we observe two different types of clusters: confluent, cobblestone-type clusters with clearly delinated edges, and more diffuse, rounded up cell clusters. Pictures provided by ATCC show only the former type of cluster. Does anyone know why this is occuring?
Hi there, i saw you hadn't received an answer for this so thought i'd respond to you. I too have witnessed the same characteristics of cell growth in this line. I have been working with this line for a while now and have often revived one vial in to 2xt25 flasks and had one flask with nicely delineated cells and one flask with rounded cell clusters. From my experience with these, it seems to be due to cell density and the distribution of the cells within the flask. When the cells are at low confluency and well spaced within the flask, they remain rounded for a much longer time and do not appear to recuperate from trysination well and it takes them much longer to proliferate and become confluent. On the other hand, when seeding at a higher density, cells cluster, elongate and resemble traditional renal cell morphology as seen in your photo. I think this is due to the generation of c-terminals between the cells and increased cell signalling and cell-to-cell interaction. i'd be keen to know if you received and further information on this though?
Hi Ari,
I also work with RPTEC/TERT1- and have seen the same differences you depicted
I agree with Mya, having attained rounded up cell cultures, and requiring a monolayer I opted to up the seeding density and attained much better confluence.
in another experiment, I trypsinized the clustered cells and reseeded in the same size flask I attained confluence in 2 days- indicating that seeding density and perhaps proximity between cells is a key factor goverening cell proliferation and downstream morphology in this cell line
BW
Tom
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