Impact of dead cells in a culture? - When cells die, how toxic can they become to viable cells? (Jun/30/2006 )

Hello all,

I'm working with Rat Adrenal Medullary Endothelial Cells (RAMEC) and am trying to figure out if they might release any toxic or growth inhibiting molecules when they die and degrade in culture. Unfortunately, I think I am the only person in the world that works with RAMEC cells (based on a few Google and Pubmed queries).

I know this question sounds very specific, but basically I am just wondering if anyone has noticed exacerbated cell death rates when there is an abundance of "floating", dead cells in their adherent cultures.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm accustomed to plants and bacteria, so I'm a bit out of my element here.

Thanks,
Hank

I prefer not to have too many dead cells, as they could release contents which might affect the well being of the healthy cells. In addition they could affect ur results.

If there r too many dead cells, i will try to adjust the cell culture conditions to reduce.

That's what I was thinking. I am trying to quantitate the amount of floating, dead cells in my cultures. We have certain mutants that seem to be growing faster, but detaching or dying more quickly. I was simply counting the cells floating in the media, but am now wondering how those floating cells are affecting the viable cells.

Hank

I dont know about this endothelial cell type, but typically they are very sensitive to envirumental changes, such as free radicals. I think the levels of these radials will increase when you have dead ones around.

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm currently redesigning the experiment to work around this problem.

_hank