growth properties
This line is difficult to maintain, though the cells are fairly hardy. They grow very slowly, and they adhere extremely well to the plastic substrate. We have had no luck detaching the cells from the substrate using trypsin or cell scrapers; both of these techniques kill the cells. The only way of expanding a population that has succeeded for us is to allow the cells to grow to very high density, and then to detach as many cells as possible by blowing medium at the surface from a serological pipet; about half the cells remain on the surface (and will grow if fresh medium is added), but the remainder can be diluted and put in fresh plates.