Workshop on In Vitro Culture Systems

Abstract

In vitro cell culture allows for experimental evaluation of cell properties with greater control of external conditions than whole animal studies. For studies of human cellular biology, where “in vivo” experimentation is not an option, the availability of well characterized culture systems is essential for scientific research. Much progress has been made in recent years in the development of a variety of mammary epithelial culture systems that permit active cell growth, utilize serum-free conditions, and/or provide potentially useful clinical correlates, such as sensitivity to chemotherapeutic drugs. At the same time, there have been rapid advances in markers for identification and characterization of mammary cells (see reference 1 for the status report of in vitro culture at the previous workshop in 1983). The current workshop addressed some of the outstanding unresolved issues in mammary cell culture, including (a) the effects of culture conditions on both maintenance of survival of specific cell types and regulation of specific cell functions; (b) how can malignant cells be identified in culture; (c) what possible role may fibroblast cells be playing in development of breast pathology.