Culturing Suspension Cancer Cell Lines

Suspension cell lines grow free-floating in the cell culture media without any attachment to the culture plate/vessel. Suspension cells typically mimic cells that exist in the circulation of multicellular animals such as mouse and humans. Generally, cell lines derived from the blood such as lymphocytes, megakaryocyte, and neutrophils grow in suspension. These cell lines can be used for experimental studies to understand the biology/biochemistry of cancer cells. In this chapter, procedures for working with suspension cell lines are provided, including protocols for thawing, culturing, and cryopreserving cancer cell lines. Importantly, this chapter demonstrates the best practices required to work with suspension cell lines, to minimize the risk of contaminations from adventitious microorganisms or from other cell lines.