Mimic™ Sf9 Insect Cells

The following protocol describes a general procedure for thawing cryopreserved cells. For detailed protocols, always refer to the cell-specific product insert.

1. Remove the cryovial containing the frozen cells from liquid nitrogen storage and immediately place it into a 37°C water bath.
2. Quickly thaw the cells (< 1 minute) by gently swirling the vial in the 37°C water bath until there is just a small bit of ice left in the vial.
3. Transfer the vial into a laminar flow hood. Before opening, wipe the outside of the vial with 70% ethanol.
4. Transfer the desired amount of pre-warmed complete growth medium appropriate for your cell line dropwise into the centrifuge tube containing the thawed cells.
5. Centrifuge the cell suspension at approximately 200 x g for 5-10 minutes. The actual centrifugation speed and duration varies depending on the cell type.
6. After the centrifugation, check the clarity of supernatant and visibility of a complete pellet. Aseptically decant the supernatant without disturbing the cell pellet.
7. Gently resuspend the cells in complete growth medium, and transfer them into the appropriate culture vessel and into the recommended culture environment.

Note: The appropriate flask size depends on the number of cells frozen in the cryovial, and the culture environment varies based on the cell and media type.

Insect cells do not require CO2 or high humidity to grow, they can grow in a lab drawer at room temperature. We recommend this so people don't waste CO2 and other resources necessary for maintaining a tissue culture incubator. It should be noted, however, that the cells will grow in a humidified incubator.

If the cell density is too low and the cells have been in culture for 4-5 days, we recommend concentrating the cells by centrifuging them at 100 X g for 5 minutes and resuspending them in fresh medium. Cells should not be left in the same medium for more than 4-5 days as nutrients in the medium will have been used up by the cells in that period, and the medium itself degraded due to prolonged exposure to warm temperatures. Cells should also be centrifuged and concentrated if a lot of cell debris is observed in culture.

Insect cells are much more fragile than a lot of mammalian cell lines. They suffer much more damage than mammalian cells from overgrowth and over-splitting. Never let cells go above 8 x 10E6 cells/mL or grow at densities less than 0.5 x 10E6 cells/mL in suspension. Insect cells require a little more osmotic pressure than mammalian cells (340 µOsM). Insect cells use a lot of O2, especially during protein expression. Insect cell culture media is more acidic than mammalian media (pH 6.0-6.4). The insect cell culture media is phosphate buffer based. Therefore, no CO² is needed to maintain the pH.

We recommend Sf9 or Sf21 cells for transfection, purification, and amplification of recombinant virus. Sf9 cells are regular in size, easy to manipulate, and form good monolayers for plaque assays. Sf9 and Sf21 cells can also be used for expression of recombinant proteins, but the High Five cell line may produce higher levels. We recommend the High Five cell line for expression of secreted recombinant proteins. They are grown in serum-free medium, adaptable to suspension culture, and produce high levels of recombinant protein (Davis et al., 1992; see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1368794).

Note: Generally it is easier to use one cell line for procedures up to optimization of protein expression. Once you have confirmed expression of your recombinant protein, other cell lines can be tried for optimization of expression levels.