Submerged organ culture: An improved method

Summary

Explants of whole ovaries and oviducts from postnatal rats were completely submerged during cultivation as organ cultures in chemically defined medium. The oxygen concentration in the culture chamber was raised to over 90%, and the stainless steel platform, used for cultures at the surface of the medium, was abandoned and excluded from further use. Thus, all of the periphery of an explant had equal access to nutrients and oxygen. Throughout the ovarian explants the tissues appeared uniformly viable, and mitotic figures were distributed evenly. These observations are in contrast to those on organs cultivated at the surface of the medium where a lack of structural uniformity had been detected. The method has general application to a variety of organs.