Aspirating cells is a common technique used in cell culture to remove or harvest adherent cells from a culture dish or flask. The process involves using a vacuum-based system to aspirate and collect cells from the culture surface.
To aspirate cells, the culture medium is first aspirated or decanted to remove any residual medium or debris. A small volume of trypsin or another dissociation agent is then added to the dish or flask to detach the cells from the surface. The dish or flask is then gently agitated or tapped to ensure even coverage of the trypsin solution and allow the cells to detach.
Once the cells have detached, a small volume of serum-containing medium or buffer is added to neutralize the trypsin and stop the detachment process. The medium is then gently aspirated using a vacuum-based system, such as a pipette or aspirator, to collect the cells from the culture surface.
It is important to be careful when aspirating cells to avoid damaging or disrupting the cell pellet. The aspirator should be positioned close to the surface of the culture dish or flask to minimize the risk of introducing air bubbles or disturbing the cell layer. The aspiration speed and volume should also be optimized for the specific cell type and conditions to ensure efficient collection of cells while minimizing cell damage or loss.
Aspirating cells can be used for a variety of applications, such as harvesting cells for downstream assays, such as flow cytometry or RNA extraction, or for subculturing or passaging cells. The technique is particularly useful for adherent cell types that grow as a monolayer on the culture surface, such as fibroblasts or epithelial cells.