Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I would also like to know what type of culture (HeLa, animal blood, etc.) would be best for a study of introducing omega 3 fatty acids to the cells? I would also like to know if omega 3s are absorbed by cells in culture or if you need to introduce them a special way? I was wondering what the best way to test cell membrane strength would be?

Hello,

HeLa cells would probably be an excellent choice, as long as you have access to the necessary equipment and supplies (mammalian cells need to be cultured in sterile conditions in an incubator with CO2 injection and temperature control, and handled using sterile technique --preferably in a laminar flow hood-- to prevent contamination.).

My guess would be that you might have to fiddle around a little to get the fatty acids into solution in the culture medium. You may want to explore PubMed Central for open-access papers that involved treating cells in culture with omega-3s or other fatty acids, and read their Materials and Methods sections to see how they dosed the cells. For example, by searching for "HeLa" and "omega-3," I found this paper, whose authors apparently combined omega-3s with bovine serum albumen before dosing the medium:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2244794/

A cell membrane strength assay may require some workup. I've never tried to do such an assay, but I wonder if you could subject the cells to hypo-osmotic stress and observe a difference in how much extra water in the medium they could stand before bursting.

Best of luck,

Will