Cell Culture Inserts

Features

• Low-protein binding property of PET membranes.
• Suited for immunohistochemistry, co-culture intercellular communication, transport studies, and drug screening.
• Easy pipet access to basolateral well for sampling or media addition.

Translucent vs. Transparent Membranes

Transparent vs. Translucent

For assays requiring optically clear membranes such as Caco-2 and MDCK, use transparent membranes. Translucent membranes have a higher pore density for maximal diffusion and are suitable for assays that do not require optically clear membranes.

BD BioCoat™ Deep-Well Plates

Multiwell plates available for use with individual cell culture inserts

BD Falcon cell culture companion plates are designed for use with individual BD Falcon and BD BioCoat inserts. When the inserts are seated within the notches of the companion plate, media will not wick up between the insert and well wall. The
BD Falcon low-evaporation lid provides a tortuous air-passage system that reduces evaporation and contamination. Individual inserts may be pushed to the sides of the plate well for easy pipet access to the basolateral well.

BD BioCoat deep-well plate (Cat. No. 355467) is a novel plate designed for use with 6-well BD cell culture inserts. The basolateral compartment of one well of the deep-well plate can hold up to 17 mL media as compared to 2.5 mL in the basolateral compartment of a regular 6-well plate. This larger media volume reduces the risk of contamination by decreasing the frequency of cell feeding during extended cell culture periods or when culturing cells at the air-liquid interface. Recommended applications include the culture of Caco-2 cells, airway epithelial cells or keratinocytes on BD’s cell culture inserts.

Applications requiring protein-coated cell culture inserts

BD BioCoat™ cell culture inserts provide consistent coating of extracellular matrix proteins on tissue culture-treated cell culture inserts. The BD BioCoat cell culture inserts are packaged ready-to-use in receiver plates. BD BioCoat control cell culture inserts are tissue culture-treated cell culture inserts, without a protein coating, packaged ready-to-use in cell culture insert companion plates. They may be used as control inserts alongside ECM-treated inserts while studying effects of the ECM component present on BD BioCoat cell culture inserts.

Cell culture on microporous membranes has been shown to promote differentiation of a variety of epithelial and mesenchymal cells in vitro, especially in the presence of ECM. For example, collagen I and fibronectin have been used on microporous inserts to establish barrier function in monolayers of intestinal epithelial and endothelial cells, to culture a renal cell line that expresses kidney-specific peptide transporter, and to culture keratinocytes. BD Matrigel coated 8 um cell culture inserts are a well accepted in vitro model of tumor cell invasion.

Product Selection Guide

Use the following chart to help you find individual cell culture inserts and surface chemistries available through BD Biosciences to meet your cell culture and application needs.

Tip: To simplify fluorescence-based assays, see BD FluoroBlok inserts for information on inserts with PET membranes that efficiently block the transmission of light from 490-700nm.

0.4 um Individual Cell Culture Inserts

1 um Individual Cell Culture Inserts

3 um Individual Cell Culture Inserts

8 um Individual Cell Culture Inserts