Use of the local anesthetic lidocaine for cell harvesting and subcultivation.

Cell suspensions from monolayer cultures of 3T3, SV-3T3, BHK, BS-C-1, or macrophages, were prepared by brief exposure of the cultures to the amide anesthetic lidocaine. Cells were subcultivated six times without marked impairment of plating efficiency. The method should be applicable to physiological, biochemical, or immunological studies in which exposure of cells to proteolytic enzymes is to be avoided.