3T3-L1 differentiation and contact inhibition - (Oct/06/2006 )

Hi,
Does anyone know how critical is "contact inhibition" to get good 3T3-L1 differetiation into adipocytes?
I ordered 3T3-L1 to Sigma Europe and they phoned me to inform me that this cell line (I think they get cells from ECACC) had lost its contact inhibition ability, but they told me they thought that wouldn't be a problem to get adipocytes. The problem is I've heard this is a critical feature to differentiate these cells. Is it true?
I'm quite messed up because at the ATCC website they say that when 3T3-L1 are confluent they become contact inhibited, while at the ECACC website they say 3T3-L1 are not contact inhibited, but both websites give a protocol to differentiate cells.

Does anyone have experience with this issue??

Hi Anuchi,

Indeed, both the websites are contradicting each other. Since you have the cells from ECACC, you might want to use ECACC protocol for differentiation and see whether your cells are differentiated. You can easily make out the differentiated 3T3 cells under phase contrast microscope.

I would very much like to know your results, if you use those cells.