New Assembly Provides Greater Convenience for Growing and Studying Cells In Vitro

Millipore Corporation today announced the availability of Hanging Millicell® Cell Culture Inserts pre-loaded into 24-well receiver trays. The new pre-loaded assembly saves time and labor across a range of experimental protocols.

Millicell inserts are plastic cell culture wells with membrane bottoms designed to promote more natural cell behavior than plastic plates. The porous membrane allows cells to be “fed” (by adding nutrients to the medium) from both the apical and basolateral sides. As a result, the cells form high integrity monolayers and studies have shown that cell growth and function more closely resemble cells grown in vivo.

The hanging, pre-loaded inserts are available with a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) membrane in two common pore sizes (0.4 and 8.0 micron). The inserts’ unique design allows easier basolateral access than other hanging inserts with less risk of contamination. The units are sterile and tissue culture treated.

Hanging Millicell inserts are recommended for co-culture and permeability assays including angiogenesis, chemotaxis, invasion, feeder layers, immunohistochemistry, tumor cell metastasis and invasion assays.

In addition to the hanging inserts, Millicell inserts are also available as standing inserts or as 24-well or 96-well plate formats. The family of Millicell products is available with a variety of microporous membranes, including PTFE, polycarbonate, and mixed cellulose esters.