Treating cells with oil - (Apr/04/2006 )

Hello,
Anybody has any experience treating cells with oil? Can i just treat the cells directly with the oil or do i have to use any carrier for the oil? Really appreciate with any suggestion. Thank you.

I'm not sure what you mean by "oil".
I treat my cells with a fatty acid which is suspended in a carrier of 100% ethanol (which is then obviously my control!). I work out what concentration of CLA I want and add according to how much medium I use and my starting concentration of CLA (I've just started a treatment this morning in fact!) I add the CLA/Ethanol to new media and vortex, then add it to the cells.
I know this is the technique used (at least in our lab) when teasting fish oils and plant oils on cells too.
Hope it helps
Rosie

Hi Rosie,
Thanks for the information. Btw, what is the maximum percentage of the EtOH you use for cells as at certain point EtOH will give some effect to the cells right? I've been using MeOH instead of EtOH does it give any much diffeences?
Thanks.

I use a maximum of 50uM of 100% EtOH, but I believe you can go higher although I've never actually needed to. I always understood that MeOH was more toxic, but the CLA we get recomends dilution and storage in EtOH. There might be a difference, but I can't give a clearer answer than that I'm afraid.
Hope this helps
Rosie

you should try to make your solution as concentrated as possible, and to have a control with the same amount of Ethanol.
5% Ethanol is definitively toxic. (I tried to solubilize some inhibitor in ethanol, but it was not soluble enough)

Thanks guys for your help. I think i got some idea.