Question: how do u grow stemcells outside of the body

James Chan answered on 18 Mar 2011:

Hi, well, I get stem cells from my human patients – mostly I get them from muscle. What I do is I put the muscle in a plastic tube and add enzymes in salt water to digest the muscle down at a warm temperature (37 degrees, which is the body temp at which the enzymes work best) so it becomes like mush. then I spin them really fast in a centrifuge so that the cells settle down in the bottom of the tube and I can pour off the liquid. then you pour the cells into a special solution that can keep the cells alive – it contains lots of chemicals like magnesium, glucose for the cells to feed on, potassium and so on. then you stick them in a flask and into an incubator so that it’s wam at 37 degrees and 5% carbon dioxide so they grow well. it’s just like cooking!