In Biomaterials Testing, a cell culture assay is any method which is used to assess the cytotoxicity of a material. This refers to the in vitro assessment of material to determine whether it releases toxic chemicals in sufficient quantities to kill cells either directly or indirectly through the inhibition of cell metabolic pathways. Cell culture evaluations are the precursor to whole animal studies and are a way to determine if significant cytotoxicity exists for the given material. Cell culture assays are standardized by ASTM, ISO, and BSI (British Standards Institution.)
Famous quotes containing the words cell, culture and/or assays:
“There’s not one part of his physical being that’s like that of human beings. From his warped brain down to the tiniest argumentative cell of his huge carcass, he’s unearthly.”
—Willis Cooper. Rowland V. Lee. Wolf von Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone)
“In society, in the best institutions of men, it is easy to detect a certain precocity. When we should still be growing children, we are already little men. Give me a culture which imports much muck from the meadows, and deepens the soil,—not that which trusts to heating manures, and improved implements, and modes of culture only!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth,
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)