Live cell transportation - (Dec/14/2006 )
Hi all,
Today, I received a live flask of mammalian cells from out of state in USA. I immediately put the flask in the incubator. The cells looked fine.
My question is how are live cells in culture transported from out of state location?
I got them by regular overnight FEDEX. Is this correct? Aren't the mammalian cells to be kept in incubator all the time with carbon dioxide? I guess the shipping was atleast for 6 hrs or maybe more! Will the cells survive without incubation for that long? Also the flask was filled with medium to the brim. ~ 210 ml in a T75. I removed the excess medium after ~1hour of incubation. I am very eager to see how the cells will fare tomorrow. But I am just curious, if anyone had experience with shipping/receiving/transporting mammalian cells to other states. We all know how frozen cells are transported - by dry ice right? How about live cells in flasks?
Thanks.
did u checked the temperature of the flask of living cells when u received it???
Hi, there is absolutley no problem transporting cells like this. I routinely send cells this way - even to other countries.
The growth of the cells slows down and as long as the flask is full as you describe, the pH stays stable and that is the really important factor.
You should have no problem with them.
Even I have recieved cell lines in T-25 flasks filled with medium to the brim. Growing culture is always transported like this.
It is cheaper to transport live cells in the flask than frozen cells with dry ice.
Well the temperature was definitely not 37 C. But maybe like room temperature. The point is: I thought if we leave a flask (by mistake forgetfully) outside in the hood for a couple of hours, the cells may not survive!!!!!!!! So maybe, Iam wrong.
The growth of the cells slows down and as long as the flask is full as you describe, the pH stays stable and that is the really important factor.
You should have no problem with them.
This is something new to me!! To other countries? For how long time the cells can survive transportation like this?
Thank you all for the replies.
I think up to 3-4 days should not be a problem.
Forget buying a live growing culture...ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS buy FROZEN ampoules/vials. They are transported on Cardice and are always in better condition.
I've gotten live cells like that shipped to me from out of the country via fedex. The reason we did it that way was that fedex can make it very very difficult for people to ship dry ice internationally. From what I understood is that the cells can survive for about a week like that. I know that the shipment I got took 3-4 days to arrive to me. I followed the same procedure you did (1 hour incubation followed by removing excess media leaving 5-10ml in the 25cm2 flask). What I was told was that within one day the cells would be able to be harvested. The cells did incredibly well (I had well over 5x10^6 cells when I did my first count). After the first day I cultured the cells as I normally would and they have been healthy and growing extremely well since that time.