Organ culture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (August 2006)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Organ culture is a development from tissue culture methods of research, the organ culture is able to accurately model functions of an organ in various states and conditions by the use of the actual in vitro organ itself.

Parts of an organ or a whole organ can be cultured in vitro. The main objective is to maintain the architecture of the tissue and direct it towards normal development. In this technique, it is essential that the tissue is never be disrupted or damaged. It thus requires careful handling. The media used for a growing organ culture are generally the same as those used for tissue culture. The techniques for organ culture can be classified into (i) those employing a solid medium and (ii) those employing liquid medium.

1 Methodology
- 1.1 Plasma clot method
- 1.2 Agar gel method
2 Limitations
3 Current progress
4 See also
5 References
6 External Links

[edit] Methodology

Embryonic organ culture is an easier alternative to normal organ culture derived from adult animals. The following are three techniques employed for embryonic organ culture.

[edit] Plasma clot method

[edit] Agar gel method

Media solidified with agar are also used for organ culture and these media consist of 7 parts 1% agar in BSS, 3 parts chick embryo extract and 3 parts of horse serum. Defined media with or without serum are also used with agar. The medium with agar provides the mechanical support for organ culture. It does not liquefy. Embryonic organs generally grow well on agar, but adult organ culture will not survive on this medium.

The culture of adult organs or parts from adult animals is more difficult due to their greater requirement of oxygen. A variety of adult organs (e.g. the liver) have been cultured using special media with special apparatus (Towell’s II culture chamber). Since serum was found to be toxic, serum-free media were used, and the special apparatus permitted the use of 95% oxygen.