In biology, explant culture is a technique used for the isolation of cells from a piece or pieces of tissue. Tissue harvested in this manner is called an explant. It can be a portion of the shoot, leaves, or some cells from a plant, or can be any part of the tissue from an animal.
In brief, the tissue is harvested in an aseptic manner, often minced, and pieces placed in a cell culture dish containing growth media. Over time, progenitor cells migrate out of the tissue onto the surface of the dish. These primary cells can then be further expanded and transferred into fresh dishes.
Explant culture can also refer to the culturing of the tissue pieces themselves, where cells are left in their surrounding extracellular matrix to more accurately mimic the in vivo environment e.g. cartilage explant culture.
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)