Question: How can you grow cells and embryos?

Sharon Sneddon answered on 15 Mar 2011:

HI Harrydacob,

Cells and embryos are grown in very similar ways, they are placed in a plastic dish called a petri dish and coverered with a special fluid to help them grow. The fluid will be different depending on what kind of cells or embryos they are, as they all like different things but it’s basically a mixture of salts, sugars, amino acids so it kind of mimics what’s inside your body. Other things that are added to the fluid might be hormones, for example oestrogen, or insulin, or things called growth factors, which give the cells the right signals so they behave properly.

Some cells stick to the bottom of the dish and then they divide to form a layer of cells along the dish. The embryos are very tiny, so we grow them in a very small drop of fluid and they will divide in that, but they don’t stick to the bottom.
We then keep the cells in an incubator at 37 degrees with the right amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide like what is in our bodies.
The cells and embryos use all the nutrients from the fluid so you have to keep replacing it every day. Once the cells have filled the dish, you then need to detach them and put them in a new bigger dish, or freeze them down to use at a later time.