Useful Numbers for Cell Culture

Useful information for various sizes of cell culture dishes and flasks

There are various sizes of dishes and flasks used for cell culture. Some useful numbers such as surface area and volumes of dissociation solutions are given below for various size culture vessels.

	Catalog No.	Surface area (cm²)	Seeding density*	Cells at confluency*	Versene (mL of 0.05% EDTA). Approx. volume	Trypsin (mL of 0.05% trypsin, 0.53 mM EDTA). Approx. volume	Growth medium (mL). Approx. volume
Dishes
35mm	150460;150318	8.8	0.3 x 10⁶	1.2 x 10⁶	1	1	2
60mm	150462;150288	21.5	0.8 x 10⁶	3.2 x 10⁶	3	3	5
100mm	150464;150350	56.7	2.2 x 10⁶	8.8 x 10⁶	5	5	12
150mm	150468;168381	145	5.0 x 10⁶	20.0 x 10⁶	10	10	30
Culture plates
6-well	140675	9.6	0.3 x 10⁶	1.2 x 10⁶	1	1	1 to 3
12-well	150628	3.5	0.1 x 10⁶	0.5 x 10⁶	0.4 to 1	0.4 to 1	1 to 2
24-well	142475	1.9	0.05 x 10⁶	0.24 x 10⁶	0.2 to 0.3	0.2 to 0.3	0.5 to 1.0
48-well	150687	1.1	0.03 x 10⁶	0.12 x 10⁶	0.1 to 0.2	0.1 to 0.2	0.2 to 0.4
96-well	167008	0.32	0.01 x 10⁶	0.04 x 10⁶	0.05 to 0.1	0.05 to 0.1	0.1 to 0.2
384-well	164688	0.084	0.0018 x 10⁶	0.0072 x 10⁶	0.015	0.015	0.08
1536-well	253614	0.03	0.0009 x 10⁶	0.0036 x 10⁶	0.003	0.003	0.01
Flasks
T-25	156367;156340	25	0.7 x 10⁶	2.8 x 10⁶	3	3	3–5
T-75	156499;156472	75	2.1 x 10⁶	8.4 x 10⁶	5	5	8–15
T-175	159910;159920	175	4.9 x 10⁶	23.3 x 10⁶	17	17	35–53
T-225	159934;159933	225	6.3 x 10⁶	30 x 10⁶	22	22	45–68
*Seeding density is given for each culture vessel type as follows: Dishes and Flasks: Cells per vessel; Culture plates: Cells per well. †The number of cells on a confluent plate, dish, or flask will vary with cell type. For this table, HeLa cells were used.