Cell line passage number? - (Jun/20/2006 )

Hi everyone,

Would appreciate it if you could help me out. I'm doing cell culture on lymphoblastoid and neuroblastoma (SHSY5Y) cell lines.

I've tried searching the web for answer on the highest acceptable passage number for both these cell lines, but yielded no result. Does anyone know the answer to this?

How to determine if the cells have differentiated? Will lymphoblastoid cells differentiate too?

Thanks.

With regard to SHSY5Y cells, i have found that if they r split after they get 50% confluent, they will grdually start to behave differently and after 5 more passages, just cant control them (for eg. 10+5= 15 ). Also if they r split ok, they could go till 20 . As I am trying to differentiate them, i use them till passages 17 or 18.

Thanks Malik.

I've been asking around and it seems that other cell lines such as lymphoblastoids or kidney cells don't have a likely problem of differentiation as SHSY5Y. In my lab, it seems that the whole cell line of SHSY5Y will be discarded upon reaching passage number 20 to 25.

Is there anyway to distinguish differentiated cells with undifferentiated? They seem to me almost the same. Thanks.

I dont c any morphological changes with the SHSY5Y cells but they seem to grow much faster and thats when I decide to get a new batch of cells. As I want to differentiate them to neurons, changes in the growth causes lots of problems with differentiation so I dont grow them till higher passages.