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The basic conditions for culturing cells in cell factories - sterile environment

Fri Feb 11 11:52:03 CST 2022

As a cell culture consumable, cell factory has become the main consumable for large-scale cell culture such as pharmaceutical companies and vaccine production. Cell culture requires specific conditions, of which a sterile environment is the primary condition for in vitro cell culture.

In vivo, the detoxification system and immune system can resist the invasion of microorganisms or other harmful substances, but in the process of in vitro culture, cells lack the protection of the body's immune system and lose the ability to defend against microorganisms and detoxify harmful substances. To ensure that cells can grow and reproduce in an in vitro environment, it is necessary to ensure a sterile work area, good personal hygiene, sterile reagents and media, and aseptic handling. Including the cell factories used are all produced in C-level clean workshops, and they must be sterilized after production to ensure that the consumables themselves have no factors that hinder the growth of cells.

cell factory

Common microbial contaminations include mycoplasma, bacteria, and fungi. Mycoplasma has no lethal toxicity, can coexist with cells for a long time, and has potential effects on cells, but it is small in size and difficult to identify. It can be detected by means of lichen red or Hoechst33342 staining. Bacteria proliferate quickly, can multiply in a large amount in a short time, and produce toxins to kill cells. There are many kinds of fungi, which are visible to the naked eye, floating on the surface of the culture medium, and can be filamentous, tubular or dendritic.

With the rapid development of the field of life sciences, the market demand for cell factories is also increasing. No matter which cell culture consumables are used, a sterile environment is the primary condition to ensure cell growth.

The FAI climbed 5.9 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months of 2018, quickening from the 5.7-percent growth in Jan-Oct, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday in an online statement.

The key indicator of investment, dubbed a major growth driver, hit the bottom in August and has since started to rebound steadily.

In the face of emerging economic challenges home and abroad, China has stepped up efforts to stabilize investment, in particular rolling out measures to motivate private investors and channel funds into infrastructure.

Friday's data showed private investment, accounting for more than 60 percent of the total FAI, expanded by a brisk 8.7 percent.

NBS spokesperson Mao Shengyong said funds into weak economic links registered rapid increases as investment in environmental protection and agriculture jumped 42 percent and 12.5 percent respectively, much faster than the average.

In breakdown, investment in high-tech and equipment manufacturing remained vigorous with 16.1-percent and 11.6-percent increases respectively in the first 11 months. Infrastructure investment gained 3.7 percent, staying flat. Investment in property development rose 9.7 percent, also unchanged.