Cell culture is the technique of growing cells in an artificial environment. This can apply to either prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells. The culture conditions vary widely for each cell type, and variation of conditions for a particular cell type can result in different phenotypes being expressed. This article is concerned with modern culture methods.
Concepts
Cell culture methods can be applied to either free-living organisms, such as bacteria or eukarytotic microorganisms, or to cells removed from a multi-cellular tissue. Related to cell culture are tissue culture and organ culture, which refer to methods for growing pieces of tissue or entire organs removed from an organism in an artificial environment.