ABSTRACT

Cell culture techniques are fundamental for understanding and performing the procedures in cellular and molecular biology and have been used with increasing frequency in medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, genetics, reproductive biology, and oncology. The use of cell culture techniques in toxicological investigations is referred to as in vitro cytotoxicology, or in vitro toxicology, the latter term including non-cellular test systems such as isolated organelles. In the fledgling years of cell culture, US scientists removed tissue expiants from animals and allowed them to adhere to glass cover slips or placed them in capillary tubes in clots formed from lymph or plasma. A small percentage of cell lines will not die out with time, but are transformed to continuous cell lines, with a growth pattern often referred to as immortal. Transformation occurs either spontaneously or as a result of incubation with viruses or chemicals.