Further miniaturization and automation of in vitro lymphocyte cultures

A microtechnique (10 mul culture volume) for in vitro lymphocyte cultures is described, which, compared with current miniaturized techniques, permits a four to 20-fold reduction of both medium volume and cell numbers. Furthermore, two alternative procedures for harvesting and washing radioisotope labelled cells are described. The first, making use of a conventional harvesting device, collects cells on glass fibre filters in a two to three-fold shorter time than that needed for the current semi-automatic collectors. The second takes advantage of the possibility of washing and fixing the cells in their culture wells and allows processing of more cultures with fewer manual operations. Various technical aspects of the micro-culture system are described and discussed with special reference to automation problems.