An Improved Technic for Massive Tissue Culture

Although there are a number of more or less standardized methods for the plating and maintenance of tissue cultures, for some specific purposes these methods and the technic used cannot well be adapted. In order to eliminate the cumbersome procedures of the hanging-drop methods of culture that have been devised, and to eliminate some of the difficulties of the flask methods, a special culture tube has been designed, as described in the present article.¹

The essential principle of this method consists in the utilization of the entire inner surface of the culture tube for the growth of the tissue cells implanted in it. In addition, it is possible to bring about a sort of washing action on the growing tissue cells by revolving the tube slowly at a controlled speed, thus allowing the supernatant fluid to bathe them constantly. The revolving action of the tube is brought about by a special device. The necessary slow movement has been found in preliminary experiments to be from one-half to one hour per turn, or just enough to prevent a violent action of the supernatant fluid which would wash the growing cells free from the inner wall of the tube. By a simple adjusting mechanism the necessary slow movement can be varied and regulated to any desired speed.