Any tips on how to avoid lifting cells in 96well plates - (Apr/20/2013 )

Hi everyone,

I work with MTS assay for drug inhibition. I did a practise run before the real experiment and tried dosing the drug each day. Whilst changing the media I realized that some of my adherent cells tear off and form a scaffold and some get lost. A549 seems fine and does not get dislodged but some other cancer cell lines do. Has anyone experienced this and would like to give some tips? I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

I suppose you pipet the fresh medium carefully and slowly at the wall of the well, or let it drop in very softly and slowly ? Cause the cells can detach through direct forces of medium being "shot" at them if one does it too quickly.

We have a similar problem with HEK293 cells. Using coated plates, poly-d-lysine or collagen for example, helps keep the cells attached. In addition, we don't aspirate the media but rather invert the dish and gently pat the dish on an absorbent surface to remove buffer during the washing.

Good luck!

Tom M on Tue Apr 23 21:11:01 2013 said: