Vitality of human lip fibroblasts in milk, Hanks balanced salt solution and Viaspan storage media.

The purpose of the study was to compare the effect of storage in milk, Hanks balanced salt solution (HBSS) and Viaspan on the vitality of human lip fibroblasts. Confluent monolayers of the fibroblasts were grown in petri dishes. The growth medium was poured off and replaced in 27 dishes each with Viaspan, fresh whole milk and Hanks balanced salt solution respectively. Three of the original plates were analyzed at time zero to obtain the average number of cells each plate contained at confluence. At times ranging from 2 to 168 hours the average number of vital cells remaining was measured using the trypan blue exclusion test. The groups stored in milk maintained a high percentage of vital cells for 6 hours (68.2%). At 12 hours milk's effectiveness had dropped to 43.4% vital cells and it was not effective at all at 48 hours (0.024% vital cells). H.B.S.S. was extremely effective for 24 hours with 71.3% vital cells remaining. At 48 hours, the percentage of vital cells dropped to 38.0% and by 120 hours no cells survived. Viaspan was the most effective storage medium at all observation periods and at 168 hours still had 37.6% vital cells present.