A modification of an established procedure for autoradiographic processing of cultured cells is described. This method eliminates the need for pipetting each individual well and also for cutting and dismantling the multiwell plate for slide preparation. In this procedure the entire plate can be processed as a single unit and the cells can be analyzed in situ, thus eliminating the time consuming pipetting and cutting procedures. Furthermore, the entire experiment can be filed without use of additional slides or storage boxes. Hence, this is a simpler, time conserving, and economical way to process large numbers of cultures for thymidine labeling indices.

We developed an animal model in the rabbit eye with intravitreally injected heterotransplanted bovine retinal pigment epithelial cells to test a pharmacological agent which would reduce extracellular matrix formation. Results with 20 and 60 micrograms of cis-hydroxyproline showed a 48% decrease in the rate of traction retinal detachments.

While chemotherapy offers a valuable adjunct to surgery in the management of intravesical bladder cancer, an accurate in vitro predictive test for chemosensitivity has yet to be developed. Drug sensitivity of the human bladder cancer cell line J-82 was assessed using monolayer, stem cell and [3H]thymidine incorporation assays. The 72-h monolayer assay provided a rapid reflection of in vitro drug sensitivity and when combined with the labeling index the results generally paralleled those obtained with the soft agar stem cell assay without the associated large commitment of time and labor. It is suggested that 72-h monolayer assay alone or in combination with [3H]thymidine labeling index may offer valuable insight into the chemotherapeutic response of bladder tumors.

No abstract

The effects of various exogenous agents on subcellular structures is of importance to many investigators and can be critically evaluated by the use of cytochemical techniques and transmission electron microscopy. Therefore various cell culture techniques have become increasingly important in biological research in order to help determine these effects. Presently, most existing methods for processing anchorage-dependent cultures for electron microscopy utilize cells grown on either glass or plastic substrates. Therefore various coating substances have been applied to the culture surfaces to facilitate removal of the sample, however, incomplete separation and sample fracture often results. Here we present a simple method of in situ processing of samples for electron microscopy involving the use of detachable chamber slides. This method allows for the use of a quick processing procedure that results in a complete separation of the sample from the glass slide.