Seven Tips for Avoiding Common Cell Culture Dish Mistakes
Petri cell culture dishes like WPI’s FluoroDishes™ are commonly used in laboratories, but they require precision and care to ensure the accurate results of your work. Let’s look at several common mistakes made with cell culture dishes and how you can avoid them.
Mitigate Contamination of Cell Culture Dishes
Contamination of the cell culture can devastate your experimental results, and it is a common issue. To minimize contaminations:
- Ensure that you are working in a sterile environment like a laminar hood.
- Avoid leaving your culture dishes open to the air for long and thus exposing them to airborne contaminants.
- Make sure your instruments are sterile before using them in your cell culture dishes.
- Never reuse disposable cell culture dishes. If you plan to reuse glass culture dishes, they must be properly sterilized using an autoclave or chemical sterilant.
- Always wear clean, sterile gloves when you handle your petri dishes.
Handle Petri Dishes Properly
To ensure your results, pay attention to how you handle your cell culture dishes. Do not touch the agar surface with unsterilized tools or your fingers. Always handle dishes by their edges, avoid direct contact with the agar.
Placement of Cell Culture Dishes in an Incubator
Pay attention when you stack your cell culture dishes in the incubator, too. Petri dishes are often inverted with the lid on the bottom for several reasons. Condensation that can disrupt or contaminate the cell growth can form on the lids in an incubator. Inversion mitigates this issue by controlling the condensation. Inverting the dishes also limits the airborne contaminants which can settle on the cell culture. And the lid on the bottom allows for limited gas exchange, which can be helpful for some cultures. However, improperly inverting plates, or culture dishes stacked too high can lead to uneven cell growth.
Prepare Agar According to Protocol
If you are using an agar preparation, follow the protocols precisely. Do not overheat or underheat the agar. Do not pour agar that is too hot, or you may experience uneven consistency or cracks. Allow the agar to cool to the appropriate temperature (around 45–50°C) before pouring it, and let it solidify at room temperature fully before inoculating.
Label Dishes Carefully
Carefully label all your FluoroDish™ cell culture dishes. Inadequate labeling may lead to confusion during analysis. Include all relevant information on your labels. That information could contain the sample type, date, and experimental conditions. Use labels that will adhere to the cell culture dishes, even in an incubator environment. A label that falls off is of little value. Use permanent ink rather than pencil when labeling.
Store Petri Dishes with Care
You must also consider how you store your cell culture dishes. Store them at appropriate temperatures, and if your samples are light-sensitive, consider the best dark location for them. If you have specialty culture dishes like the fibernectin, vitronectin, poly-d-lysine, poly-l-lysine, or collegen coated FluoroDishes™, they may need to be refrigerated. Like WPI’s FluoroDish™ cell culture dishes, your disposable cell culture dishes should come sterile in sealed bags. Using airtight containers or bags reduces the chance of moisture and contamination. Also, pay attention to the expiration date of your coated and sterile culture plates. Coatings have a shelf life, and sterility can be guaranteed for a limited period of time.
Sample Application
When applying your sample on the agar surface, do not overload it. Overloading leads to overcrowding your culture. For clear, reliable data, ensure you have a consistent inoculation by using calibrated tools and spacing samples appropriately. Then, you can observe the cell growth and perform your analysis with confidence.
Seed your cell culture dishes with confidence, minimize errors, and ensure your experiments yield reliable and meaningful results. Attention to detail and a commitment to aseptic techniques are critical in any successful laboratory work.
