[Application of cell co-culture techniques in medical studies]

As the cell co-culture techniques can better imitate an in vivo environment, it is helpful in observing the interactions among cells and between cells and the culture environment, exploring the effect mechanisms of drugs and their possible targets and filling the gaps between the mono-layer cell culture and the whole animal experiments. In recently years, they has attracted much more attention from the medical sector, and thus becoming one of research hotspots in drug research and development and bio-pharmaceutical fields. The cell co-culture techniques, including direct and indirect methods, are mainly used for studying pathological basis, new-type treatment methods and drug activity screening. Existing cell co-culture techniques are used for more pharmacological studies on single drug and less studies on interaction of combined drugs, such as collaborative compatibility and attenuation and synergistic effect among traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs). In line with the action characteristics of multi-component and multi-target, the cell co-culture techniques provide certain reference value for future studies on the effect and mechanism of combined TCMs on organisms as well as new methods for studies on TCMs and their compounds. This essay summarizes cell co-culture methods and their application and look into the future of their application in studies on TCMs and compounds.