Unit 1 Flashcards
(155 cards)
What do you have to understand in order to have a molecular understanding of cells?
Biochemical and genetic analysis of the cell
Why are disrupting agents needed to create a cell culture
Need to disrupt the intercellular attachments
What types of interactions are broken by things like EDTA, trypsin, and collagenases?
protein -protein interactions and the ECM
How does EDTA disrupt cellular attachments?
pulls off Ca ions
After treating a tissue with EDTA what are you left with?
A heterogeneous population of cells
What conditions do cells need to grow in culture
Correct pH, essential amino acids, vitamins, growth factors, negatively charged surface, antibiotics and antimycotics
What does a negatively charged solid surface mimic?
extracellular interctions
How are CAMS (cell adhesion molecules) like collagen and fibronectin inactivated?
by removing calcium ions
Define primary cell culture
cells prepared directly from tissues of an organism
Fibroblasts secreting collagen
Muscle cells contracting
Nerve cells forming synapses
Are all examples of what?
Primary cell cultures displaying the characteristics of the tissue from which they are created
Define a cell strain
lineage of cells from one initial primary culture. Continued through “passage of cells”
What is the approx life of primary cells?
50 - 100 doublings
Another name for contact inhibition
Confluency. THIS IS NOT SEEN IN CANCER CELLS>
Characteristics of immortal cells
Grow to a high density
Genetically altered
Solid surface not always required
Result from cells undergoing mutations that do not die.
AKA transformed cells (not like bacteria)
Which phase do you want to study cells in?
Which phase do mutations start to accumulate?

Phase 2
Phase 3
What is the definition of a cell line?
What is one problem with studying a cell line?
Cells that have undergone transformation and are immortal.
**May not accurately represent origianl cell type
True of false: Mouse cells transform much more than human cells
True
What part of an embryronic blastocyst has the stem cells?
ICM (inner cell mass)
Removed (step that destroys the embryo)
What are the additional requirements of embryonic stem cells?
fibroblast feeder cells (hormones and growth factors)
Cytokines (transcription factors)
**give feeder cells or supply cytokines
What are the methods of separating a specific cell type from a heterogeneous mixture of cells?

Physical proerties (ex. size / density)
Physiological properties (affinity / charge)
Flow cytometry
What is the goal of flow cytometry
separate cell types using cell surface antigens
How does flow cytometry separate cells using antigens?
make “tags” that only attach to the antigens on one specific cell type.
For “polar” cells (epithelial) what does the apical surface do?
Passes materials