Abstract:

BACKGROUND: There are three methods to obtain human bladder epithelial cells: enzymatic digestion, scraping and tissue plant. Each of the three methods has its advantage and disadvantage. There are too many ingredients in the culture medium to deal with, besides, the efficiency is low.
OBJECTIVE: To approach the best method for primary culture of human bladder epithelial cells.
METHODS: Human bladder epithelial cells from normal bladder mucosa were cultured with three different primary cell culture methods: enzymatic digestion, scraping and tissue plant.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The successful rates of bladder epithelial cells cultured with enzymatic digestion, scraping and tissue plant were 13.3%, 26.7% and 86.7% respectively, and the differences in successful rates were significant (P < 0.001). Fluorescent staining with AE1/AE3 antibody confirmed that the cultured bladder epithelial cells were positive for AE1/AE3 epithelial cytokeratins. Tissue plant is a simple and feasible primary culture method for bladder epithelial cells culture, and a great amount of pure bladder epithelial cells can be obtained in a short time using this method.