Difference between Cell Culture Dish and Medium

Cell culture dishes ( Petri dishes) and mediums are mainly laboratory supplies, for microbial or cell culture, but people often mix them up. Here are some introduces between cell culture dish and medium.

35-150mm TC treated cell culture dishes 60 mm cell culture dish

Difference definition between Cell Culture Dish and Medium:

  • A cell culture dish is a container generally for holding a solid agar medium. To put it bluntly, it is a round platter made of plastic or glass.
  • Medium is a nutrient matrix composed of different nutrients for the growth and reproduction of microorganisms, plants, or animals (or tissues).
  • There are several classification methods for culture medium, which can be divided into solid medium, liquid medium, and semi-solid medium according to the state.

Further introduction to cell culture dish:

  • A cell culture dish is a commonly used laboratory container mainly used for microbial or cell culture. It consists of a flat disc-shaped bottom and a lid like made a square cell culture dish, and plastic or glass.
  • And divided the materials of Petri dishes into two types: plastic and glass. cell culture dish surface can be for the adherent culture of plant material, microorganism culture, and animal cells.
  • Plastic Petri dishes are often polyethylene materials and divided into single-use and multi-use,
  • All sizes, like cell culture dishes 100 mm, were suitable for laboratory streaking, inoculation, and bacterial isolation, and like in cell culture dish areas suitable for the cultivation of plant materials.
  • Petri dishes are fragile in texture and fragile items, so people should care for them when cleaning and handling them.
  • And should clean Petri dishes after use, then store them in a safe and secure place to prevent damage and breakage.

Further introduction to the culture medium:

  • The culture medium is artificially formulated nutrients for the growth and maintenance of plant tissues, animal tissues, and microorganisms, generally containing carbohydrates, inorganic salts (including trace elements), nitrogenous substances, vitamins, and water.
  • Different media can add some compounds that cannot be synthesized by themselves, that is, growth factors according to actual needs.
  • Different cultured genes use different raw materials and have different storage requirements.
  • Often, media are susceptible to bacterial contamination or decomposition when exposed to heat or moisture.
  • Therefore, under normal circumstances,  should protect the medium from moisture and light and should store in a cool place.
  • For some media should strictly sterilize (such as tissue culture medium)
  • And if stored for a long time, should place in a refrigerator at 3-6 °C. Since the liquid medium is not conducive to long-term storage and storage, the medium is turned into a powder.

The general difference between a petri dish and a medium:

150mm cell culture dish

  • It is equivalent to the difference between a water cup and water, one is the container and the other is the content.
  • As for the sterilization method, there are many reasons why the medium does not need dry heat sterilization, such as heat conduction efficiency, the ability of the sterilizer, etc., but the most important thing is that if the medium is sterilized and subjected to dry heat, it will lose moisture.
  • After all, in addition to nutrients and specific chemical solvents, the solid medium is mainly a solution of agar and water (a jelly-like solid after cooling), and dry heat sterilization will evaporate a lot of water (dry heat sterilization is not pressurized, water will boil very hard, so evaporation will be violent).
  • It does not matter whether the petri dish is glass or not.
  • Dry heat sterilization does not require pressure, so it takes less time and saves time. Still, there is no problem with high-pressure steam sterilization of Petri dishes, and it is generally not too wet to affect use.

There are more introduces about how is the petri dish usedhow to clean Petri dishes, etc.