Question about sustrate coating - (May/15/2006 )

What is the difference of collagen, poly-l-lysine and gelatin?
Collagen is so expensive and gelatin so cheap. Can i use gelatin in stead of collagen? Gelatin is sometime used in blocking solution of immunohistology. Will it affect cell growth if used as substrate coating material?

Thank you!

Plus: i am culturing PC12 cells.

Dear latebirth,

Poly-L-Lysine is generally used as it is supposed to be inert. Collagen, Fibronectin, Laminin and Gelatin are not inert compounds but are used as atttachment factors for cells that do not adhere well to tissue culture treated plastic. You can use products such as Primaria, from Falcon, which is again a specialised inert surface to increase cell adhesion. They all should be used to increase attachment and therefore this should increase the numbers of cells that proliferate.
You should first try plastics from all the companies that you can i.e Sterillin, Corning, Falcon, Nunc etc. Cells will adhere and grow at varying rates on the different plastics, as they all are unique in their own way.