Cinematography commenced as a scientific technique used as a system for “slowing down” observed movement. Marey in 1888 (1) constructed, following a number of other ideas, a “Chambre Chronophoto-graphique,” which had practically all the elements of the modern cine camera. With this he made s ...
Despite the enthusiasm of the first investigations of cell ultrastructure, morphological studies have since lost some of their importance for biomedical research. The development of quantitative biochemical methods has been the cause of this reduced interest in morphology. Bio ...
We describe a method to derive cell lines and clones from cells of the murine midgestation aorta-gonads-mesonephros (AGM) microenvironment. We start from subdissected AGM regions in “explant-” or “single-cell suspension”-type cultures from embryos transgenic for tsA58, a tempera ...
Normal human and mouse bone marrow is composed of hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic cells. The latter have also been termed stromal cells, microenvironment cells, colony-forming-unit fibroblasts (CFU-F), and mesenchymal cells. These cells were originally thought to provide an ...
The architecture of mammalian skin incorporates an outer layer of stratified epithelium. This enables the organism to conserve internal homeostasis and maintain protection from adverse environmental exposure. The keratinocyte is the cell primarily responsible for this stru ...
As our knowledge of the species differences in drug metabolism and drug-induced hepatotoxicity has expanded significantly, the need for human-relevant in vitro hepatic model systems has become more apparent than ever before. Human hepatocytes have become the “gold standard” for eva ...
Primary rabbit kidney epithelial cell cultures can be obtained that express renal proximal tubule functions. Toward these ends, renal proximal tubules are purified from the rabbit kidney by the method of Brendel and Meezan. To summarize, each kidney is perfused with iron oxide, which becom ...
Normal human mammary tissue is composed of a glandular epithelium embedded within a fibrous and fatty stroma. Collagenase and hyaluronidase digestion of normal reduction mammoplasty specimens followed by differential centrifugation yields a suspension of single cells and ce ...
Murine embryonic day 14 or E14 neural stem cells (NSCs), first isolated and characterized as a stem cell in culture, are a unique population of cells capable of self-renewal. In addition, they produce a large number of progeny capable of differentiating into the three primary phenotypes—neuro ...
Cell culture is an invaluable tool for investigators in numerous fields. It facilitates analysis of biological properties and processes that are not readily accessible at the level of the intact organism. Successful maintenance of cells in culture, whether primary or immortalized, re ...
Isolated cardiomyocytes are a prerequisite to study the biology of cardiomyocytes. Efficient isolation is difficult, as these cells adhere firmly together in the heart and do not divide. Therefore, any experiment is restricted to the amount of calcium-tolerant, rod-shaped cardiomy ...
Leukocyte recruitment from the vasculature occurs under conditions of hemodynamic shear stress. The parallel-plate flow chamber apparatus is an in vitro system that is widely used to study leukocyte recruitment under shear conditions. The flow chamber is a versatile tool for examini ...
The purpose of this chapter is to describe the isolation techniques that result in pure cultures of human vascular endothelial cells from the umbilical vein and umbilical cord blood. We first describe the isolation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Additional protoco ...
The protocol for isolation of side population (SP) cells was originally established for murine bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), but it has also been adapted for other species and tissues. This purification strategy offers a simple and reproducible strategy to obtain a highly ho ...
Embryonic stem (ES) cells have the ability to self-renew as well as differentiate into any cell type in the body. These traits make ES cells an attractive “raw material” for a variety of cell-based technologies. However, uncontrolled cell aggregation in ES cell differentiation culture inhib ...
Human cell lines are an important resource for research and most often used in reverse genetic approaches or as in vitro model systems of human diseases. In this regard, it is crucial that the cells faithfully correspond to the purported objects of study. A number of recent publications have shown an u ...
Cytogenetic analysis forms an essential part of characterizing and identifying cell lines, in particular those established from tumors. In addition, karyotypic analysis can be used to distinguish individual subclones and to monitor stability. This chapter describes basic cyto ...
Hematopoietic stem cells present in small numbers in certain fetal organs during development and in adult bone marrow produce a heterogeneous pool of progenitors that can be detected in vitro using colony-forming cell (CFC) assays. Hematopoietic progenitor cells, when cultured in a sem ...
The two most convenient sources of primary murine macrophages are the bone marrow and the peritoneal cavity. Resident peritoneal macrophages can readily be harvested from mice and purified by adherence to tissue culture plastic. The injection of Bio-Gel polyacrylamide beads or thiog ...
Methods to isolate and culture human monocyte-derived macrophages and alveolar macrophages are described. Monocytes are obtained from buffy-coat preparations by Ficoll density gradient centrifugation, followed by adhesion-mediated purification on tissue culture or g ...