Cell Culture Incubator Co2 Percentage

Carbon dioxide co2 incubators are mainstays in traditional biology labs engaging in cell or tissue culture.

Cell culture incubator co2 percentage.

The majority of cell culture laboratories are set up to culture cells in an incubator environment of 20 oxygen and 5 carbon dioxide. Incubators provide a stable environment designed to mimic a cell s natural environment. In order to culture cells under optimum conditions the media they grow in needs to stay at neutral ph around ph 7. Room air contains only 0 03 0 06 co 2 or sometimes a little more if your ventilation is poor.

1 5 to 2 2 g l sodium bicarbonate was use for majority of mammalian cell culture 5 co2 is set in an incubator. In theory dmem 44mm nahco 3 a higher percentage of co 2 should be used between 7 5 and 11 5 at a nominal level of 10. The heracell vios 250i co2 incubators provide a premium clean room compatible solution where cultures can grow in a controlled protected environment. Co2 incubators are widely used in tissue cell culture growth applications in laboratories.

Humans are most comfortable at co2 levels at or slightly above 400 ppm 0 04 which raises the question why would a co2 incubator that is used to grow tissue cultures need co2 levels of 5 10. Ph can changes during room air cell handling due to co 2 and temperature changes. An incubator is a device used to grow and maintain microbiological cultures or cell cultures the incubator maintains optimal temperature humidity and other conditions such as the co 2 and oxygen content of the atmosphere inside. Incubators are essential for much experimental work in cell biology microbiology and molecular biology and are used to culture both bacterial and eukaryotic cells.

What is amazing about this standard protocol of care is that very few cells in the body are ever exposed to 20 oxygen 160 mm mercury hg under normal physiological conditions. Optional variable oxygen control allows for precise control of the culture environment which is critical particularly with more sensitive cells. We charge a traditional open room cell culture incubator with co 2 raising it to 5 or more to maintain the ph of carbonate buffer based cell culture media. Ph of 7 2 to 7 5 temperature of 37 c and a relative humidity of about 95 percent.

At the other end of the range culture media that have been stored in the refrigerator for a month or more may increase in ph enough to turn fuchsia. If the co2 tank feeding the incubator runs out the cell medium also turns fuchsia.