cytology

The definition of cytology is a branch of biology that studies the structure and function of plant and animal cells.

(noun)

When a biologist studies how human blood cells work and how they relate to each other and to the rest of the body, this is an example of cytology.

noun

the branch of biology dealing with the structure, function, pathology, and life history of cells

Cytology is that branch of life science, which deals with the study of cells in terms of structure, function and chemistry.

Cytology (from Greek κύτος, kytos, "a hollow";^[1] and -λογία, -logia) means "the study of cells".

Cytogenetics is a branch of genetics that is concerned with the study of the structure and function of the cell, especially thechromosomes.^[1] It includes routine analysis of G-banded chromosomes, other cytogenetic banding techniques, as well as molecular cytogenetics such as fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) and comparative genomic hybridization (CGH).

Levitsky seems to have been the first to define the karyotype as the phenotypic appearance of the somatic chromosomes, in contrast to their genic contents.^[2][3]Investigation into the human karyotype took many years to settle the most basic question: how many chromosomes does a normal diploid human cell contain?

Cell culture is the complex process by which cells are grown under controlled conditions, generally outside of their natural environment. In practice, the term "cell culture" now refers to the culturing of cells derived from multi-cellular eukaryotes, especially animal cells. However, there are also cultures of plants, fungi and microbes, including viruses, bacteria and protists. The historical development and methods of cell culture are closely interrelated to those of tissue culture and organ culture.

Animal cell culture became a common laboratory technique in the mid-1900s,^[1] but the concept of maintaining live cell lines separated from their original tissue source was discovered in the 19th century.

Contents

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• 1 History
• 2 Concepts in mammalian cell culture
  • 2.1 Isolation of cells
  • 2.2 Maintaining cells in culture
  • 2.3 Cell line cross-contamination
  • 2.4 Other technical issues
  • 2.5 Manipulation of cultured cells
    • 2.5.1 Media changes
    • 2.5.2 Passaging cells
    • 2.5.3 Transfection and transduction
  • 2.6 Established human cell lines
  • 2.7 Generation of hybridomas
  • 2.8 Cell strains
• 3 Applications of cell culture
  • 3.1 Cell culture in two dimensions
  • 3.2 Cell culture in three dimensions
  • 3.3 3D Cell Culturing by Magnetic Levitation
  • 3.4 Tissue culture and engineering
  • 3.5 Vaccines
• 4 Culture of non-mammalian cells
  • 4.1 Plant cell culture methods
  • 4.2 Insect cell culture
  • 4.3 Bacterial and yeast culture methods
  • 4.4 Viral culture methods
• 5 Common cell lines
• 6 List of cell lines
• 7 See also
• 8 References and notes
• 9 External links