Medium for culturing 2 types of cell together - (Jun/24/2008 )

Hi all,
I have a question:
How do I prepare the medium for culturing two types of cells together on the same substrate. I'm culturing primary osteoblast and osteosarcoma. Those two types of cells use different culture media. Should I make half-half media?
Thanks,
Peter

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Interesting! You may be on your own unless somebody has checked out exact same cells for co-culture.

some points to consider:

1. Use the media for the more finicky cell line.

2. Mix 50 50

3. Number of cells in the mixture. cell A 30%, cell B 70%, you may prepare media accordingly.

4. If one of the cell line forms the basis of your experiment, that should be given a priority.

5. If you need to first culture one cell line and then add another, you may go with first medium first, second second.

6. If one cell line uses a unique component, it may not harm the other cell line. So, you may want to use a common basal media+full components for each cell line. (i.e. cell line A: rather than adding tgf-beta half, add full. Cell line B: rather than adding half of insulin, add full).

7. You don't always have to mix cells for co-culture, you may also prepare conditioned media for one cell line and add to another. Your problem may still persist, but you may get some new results too.

Addit:

8. You may try to best adept one cell line with another medium before going for co-culture.

9. Talk with tech-reps. They may know which component/s are absolutely essential, and which ones not so. They may also suggest alternative basal media if they are different in your case.

Let us know what worked out for you!

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Thanks! I'll keep you updated

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