The important role of CO2 shaking incubator in laboratory cell culture

The important role of CO2 shaking incubator in laboratory cell culture

Cell culture technology refers to the cultivation and research of living cells by selecting the best survival conditions of various cells, and is an important technology widely used in the field of life sciences.

CO2 incubator is a relatively common incubator for cell culture in the laboratory. It mainly cultivates biological cells by simulating the temperature, humidity, PH value of the organism. Generally, the PH of the cell culture fluid is between 7.0-7.4. Since the carbonate PH buffer system is a physiological PH buffer system, most culture fluids use it to maintain a stable PH. When preparing culture medium with powder, it is often necessary to add a certain amount of sodium bicarbonate.

For most culture solutions that use carbonate as a PH buffer system, in order to maintain a stable PH, the carbon dioxide in the incubator needs to be maintained between 2-10% to maintain the concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide in the culture solution. At the same time, cell culture vessels need a certain degree of ventilation to facilitate gas exchange. Does the use of other PH buffer systems eliminate the need for carbon dioxide incubators? the answer is negative! It is found that due to the low concentration of carbon dioxide in the air, if the cells are not cultured in a CO2 incubator, the HCO3- in the culture medium will be depleted, which will affect the normal growth of the cells. Therefore, the cultivation of most animal cells still requires a CO2 incubator.

Cell culture fluids are often supplemented with other PH buffer systems, such as the HEPES buffer system, to increase the PH buffer capacity. HEPES has a strong buffering capacity between PH 7.2 and 7.4. When the gas-permeable culture vessel is taken out of the carbon dioxide incubator, the carbonate buffer system in the culture fluid will lose its effect due to the low carbon dioxide concentration in the air. At this time, the HEPES buffer system can continue to maintain the PH stability.

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