The Difference between A Cell Culture Flask and A Petri Dish

A cell culture flask and a plastic petri dish can promise the level of safety factor and the number of cultured cells. But there is some difference between  cell culture flask vs dish.

The difference between Cell Culture Flask vs Dish:

Cell Culture Flask with Sealed Cap cell culture dishes 100 mm

Difference usages between  Cell Culture Flask vs Dish:

  1. The difference between a cell culture flask and a petri dish is the safety factor of the flask is higher and the operation is more convenient.
  2.  People used the flask for relatively large-scale cultures or cells that are more susceptible to contaminants.
  3. The sterile Petri dishes are more suitable for small-scale culture or some control analysis experiments.
  4. Using a culture flask is for the primary culture of tissue blocks, and passage of the grown cells according to personal preference.
  5. It is better to use a culture dish or culture plate for experiments with cells as a carrier or object because the amount used is less to save cells
  6. The culture plate is good for control experiments and gradient experiments, such as a 6-well plate, you can use one as a control.
  7. However, culture plates are relatively more prone to contamination, so should handling more carefully.
  8. According to the flask material, cell culture flasks uses are suitable for long-term culture, passage, and seed cells. Not easy to contaminate.

Difference culture area between a cell culture flask and a petri dish:

  1. The culture area of the flask is T25, T75, and more. The T25 cell culture flask area is about 25, and T75 is 75. The cell culture flask material is PS.
  2. A t25 cell culture flask is equivalent to 6 culture plates, so use a culture flask when a large number of cells need to be expanded.

The flask and petri dish is suitable for use in various experiments and temporary cultures. But most people ignore inverted Petri dishes.

Here are some reasons for inverted Petri dishes:

Why are sterile Petri dishes inverted?

  1. Due to the action of gravity, the surface and sub-layer of the medium can enrich the nutrients required for the growth of microorganisms, which is conducive to the growth of microorganisms.
  2. Prevent the contamination of the medium and culture by microorganisms in the air. If not inverted, the bacteria will soon grow around the Petri dishes.
  3. when inverted the Petri dish, the air in the plate does not flow, and the bacteria will not settle on the surface of the medium.
  4.  Inverted plastic Petri dishes make it difficult for the water in the agar to evaporate,
  5. And fully maintain the elasticity of the agar and the environment where bacteria easily multiply and survive.
  6. If not inverted, the medium will have cracks and other water loss in about 3 days.
  7. For some colonization and other tests, it is necessary to verify that the medium is sterile.
  8. Used as a template for colonization, which is necessary to invert the culture for 48 hours.

There are more introduces about how to clean Petri dishes, what is the precaution of washing cell culture flasks, etc.