What animates the HEK-293 cells?

[Daniel]

This question crossed my mind when listening to Fr. Ripperger's podcast in this other thread, but I didn't want to derail that thread.

The abortion took place back in the '70s, and the kidney cells were somehow kept alive in a lab. And they live to this day, even though the victim died decades ago.

The kid's soul is gone. How then are the cells still alive?

[Kaesekopf]

Interesting webpage:
https://bitesizebio.com/45489/what-the-hek-a-beginners-guide-to-hek293-cells/

Keeping Them Happy
The needs of HEK293 cells are pretty simple. Non-negotiables include a humidified incubator kept at 37°C with 5% CO2 and a diet of high-glucose media such as Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium (DMEM), supplemented with Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS). Culturing media should also contain broad-spectrum antibiotics such as Penicillin-Streptomycin-Glutamine in order to prevent common bacterial infections.

As I mentioned above, you can use a variety of methods to transfect HEK293 cells, so you have plenty of choice. You can even get specific HEK293 transfection kits with all the reagents you need included to make it super easy.

Because they grow quite rapidly, you can passage your HEK293 cells every couple of days (in our lab, we typically passage on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays). Similar to other cell lines, it’s pretty standard procedure to split the cells when they are in log (growth) phase, meaning that they are not quite 100% confluent.

[james03]

How is a paramecium cell alive?

[Daniel]

So you're suggesting that each kidney cell has its own animal soul? Guess that might make sense.