Difference Between Monolayer and Suspension Culture

Key Difference – Monolayer vs Suspension Culture
 

Tissue culture is a methodology that is used to induce the growth of cells that are separated from the organism and is grown in different culture media. In tissue culture, the culture media play an important role. Different cells grow in different culture media depending on the cells physiological and chemical features. Monolayer culture and suspension culture are two main types of cultures that are used during the process of tissue culture. A monolayer culture is an anchorage dependent culture where the cell grows while attached to a substrate and suspension culture is an anchorage independent culture where cell aggregates are used to establish cell cultures in liquid media. This is the key difference between Monolayer culture and suspension culture.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Monolayer Culture
3. What is Suspension Culture
4. Similarities Between Monolayer and Suspension Culture
5. Side by Side Comparison – Monolayer vs Suspension Culture in Tabular Form
6. Summary

What is Monolayer Culture?

Monolayer culture is defined as a type of culture in which cells are cultivated in a single layer on a flask or petri dish containing the culture medium. Monolayer culture is also referred to as adherent culture or anchorage-dependent culture. The reason for referring to adherent or anchorage-dependent culture is that these cells need a substrate for attachment during their growth. They get adhered to the cell culture containing the substrate.

The substrates that are utilized in the culture medium should be charged prior to usage. These charged substrates promote cell to cell interactions. Electric ion discharger, divalent cation coatings and gamma irradiations are the sources that are used to charge these substrates. In monolayer culture medium, once the cells are inoculated, the growth is regulated with the use of the process called contact inhibition. During contact inhibition, the cell growth is arrested to stop the proliferating of normal cells once they formed a monolayer attached to the surface.

The cells that depend on other substrates for attachment are referred to as adherent cells. These adherent cells are often derived from organ tissues such as kidney, etc. These cells are immobile and are typically attached to the connective tissue. Therefore, all these essential growth factors should be provided when growing these cells on culture media. The importance of monolayer culture is that it mimics the original natural conditions for the cell to establish properly.

What is Suspension Culture?

A suspension culture could be defined as a type of culture where multiplication of small aggregate of cells or single cells takes place suspended in a liquid medium that is constantly agitated. In other terms, suspension culture is also known as cell culture of cell suspension culture. This culture assists in the establishment of single cell cultures that could be utilized in during the investigation of plants cells with respect to their different potentials and properties. Investigation about this aspect could be used to understand the interrelationships between cells and their influences when it comes to multicellular organisms.

During initial plant development, a callus is formed that is a mass of undifferentiated cells. This level of growth cause obstacles for the identification of cellular events during the growth and development phases of the plant. Suspension culture was introduced to overcome this situation since it provided an excellent culture medium for the establishment of single cell cultures from small cell aggregates obtained from the callus. This was utilized to study different morphological and biochemical aspects during the initial stages of a plant’s development.

In the context of obtaining an ideal cell culture, the typical method is to transfer a friable mass of callus into an agitated liquid medium where the mass is broken and dispersed readily.Afterwards, the large calli are screened out keeping the small cell aggregates and single cells. Then these cells are transferred into another medium. Actively growing cells are obtained after two to three weeks.

What are the Similarities Between Monolayer and Suspension Culture?

• Both monolayer and suspension cultures are two types of cell cultures that are utilized for the establishment of cell
• Both monolayer and suspension types of cultures are grown on suitable culture media.
• Both monolayer and suspension cultures are commonly used in tissue culture.

What is the Difference Between Monolayer and Suspension Culture?

Monolayer vs Suspension Culture
A monolayer culture is an anchorage-dependent culture where the cells are grown while attached to a substrate.	Suspension culture is an anchorage independent culture where multiplication of small aggregates of cells or single cells takes place suspended in a liquid medium that is agitated.
Requirements
Monolayer culture requires a tissue culture treated vessel with periodic passaging.	Suspension culture could be achieved by non-tissue culture treated vessels.
Growth Limitations
The growth of monolayer culture will be limited by the surface area that directly affects the yield.	Growth limitation of the suspension culture takes place by the concentration of cells in the medium.
Cell Dissociation
Cell dissociation takes place mechanically or enzymatically in monolayer culture.	Suspension Culture does not require the assistance of enzymes and mechanical means for cell dissociation.
Cell Visualization
Monolayer culture allows easy visualization of cells.	It is harder to view cells in suspension cultures.
Function
Monolayer culture is used in the fields of cytology, research and continuous product harvesting.	Suspension culture is used for the bulk production of proteins, research studies and batch harvesting.

Summary – Monolayer vs Suspension Culture

Monolayer culture and suspension culture are two main cultures used in tissue culture. The monolayer culture is an anchorage-dependent culture. The cells are grown in this culture where they are attached to a substrate present in the culture. The substrates are charged before using with the involvement of different sources such as divalent coatings and ion discharger. Suspension cultures are anchorage-independent cultures where the cells grow without the help of a substrate for attachment. This culture assists in the establishment of single cell cultures that could be utilized in during the investigation of plants cells with respect to their different potentials and properties. This is the difference between monolayer culture and suspension culture.

Reference:

1.“Cell Suspension Culture: Definition, Principle, Protocol and Importance | Plant Tissue.” Biology Discussion, 26 Oct. 2015. Available here 
2.“Adherent & Suspension Cell Cultures.” Study.com, Study.com. Available here  

Image Courtesy:

1.’Cell culture on PNIPAM’By Guillaume Paumier (user:guillom) – Own work, (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia 
2.’Sphagnum palustre in Bioreactor’By ReskiLab, (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia