Suspension culture

In 1885, Wilhelm Roux laid the groundwork for future tissue culture, by developing a saline buffer that was used to maintain living cells (chicken embryos) for a few days.

[7] Later in 1910, Montrose Thomas Burrows adapted Harrison's technique and collaborated with Alexis Carrel to establish multiple tissue cultures that could be maintained in vitro using fresh plasma combined with saline solutions.

[10] Notably in 1952, George Otto Gay and his assistant Mary Kubicek cultured the first human derived immortalized cell line - HeLa.

[12] Adhesion of white blood cells in vivo is typically the result of an inflammatory immune response and requires specific cell-cell interactions that should not occur in a suspension of a single type of white blood cell.

Both require specialized nutrient containing media, containers that allow for gas transfer, aseptic conditions to avoid contamination, and frequent passaging to prevent overcrowding of cells.

Although both adherent and suspension cell cultures require media, media used in suspension culture may contain a surfactant to protect cells from shear forces in addition to the amino acids, vitamins and salt solution contained in culture media such as DMEM.

The magnetic spinner bar itself is typically suspended from a rod attached to the central cap so that it maximizes media circulation in the cell suspension.

The media must be allowed to stir, but cannot disturb the cells too much causing them excessive stress.

Using this information, a portion of the current suspension culture will be transferred to fresh flask and supplemented with media.

In order to change the media for a suspension culture, all cells from the current container should be removed and centrifuged into a pellet.

Most large scale suspension culture involves non-mammalian cells and takes place in bioreactors.