Recent Developments in Vertebrate Cell Culture Technology

Publisher Summary This chapter describes recent developments in various vertebrate cell-culture-related technologies. It also discusses the history of vertebrate cell-culture technology along with some of its major technical breakthroughs, future commercial expectations, and societal implications. The development of vertebrate cell culture can be traced back to some of the earliest observations on cultivation of chick-embryo cells in warm saline. The applicability of animal-cell culture techniques broadened further by major developments including the use of antibiotics to eliminate or minimize contamination, the development of techniques for trypsin-aided passage of cells, and technical improvements in the supply of media and serum. The standardization of culture conditions for cultivation of vertebrate cell systems and cell lines facilitates assay and production of viruses and cells in large numbers, which makes their biochemical analysis more convenient. The development of culture media specifically designed to meet the specific requirements of various cell types is becoming increasingly important in order to increase the productivity of individual metabolites. This may be particularly important in reducing costs of scaleup. Culture media tailor-made to meet the nutritional requirements of individual cell lines minimize their requirements of essential and expensive nutrients and hence, result in the elimination of costly and nonessential nutrients.