Use of cell culture in virology for developing countries in the South-East Asia Region

It has been over six decades since the discovery by Enders and his co-workers that polioviruses could replicate in cell cultures of non-neural origin. This has stimulated extensive use of cell cultures for propagation of a number of human and animal viruses. Consequently, cell culture is an indispensable tool in modern-day medicine with innumerable applications. 

Cell culture involves a complex of processes of cell isolation from their natural environment (in vivo) and subsequent growth in a controlled environmental artificial condition (in vitro). The term “cell culture”denotes growing of cells in vitro under conditions where the cells are no longer organized into tissues. This should not be confused with the term “tissue culture”, which denotes maintenance and growth of tissues in a way that allows differentiation and preservation of the  architecture and/or function. In cell culture, cells derived from specific tissues or organs  are cultured as short-term, mid-term or long-term established cell lines, which are  widely used for research and diagnosis, particularly in the case of viral infection, because pathogenic viral isolation depends on the availability of permissible cell cultures.