Pepsin can be used to subculture viable mammary epithelial cells

Summary Normal mouse mammary epithelial cells in primary culture can be passaged as viable single cells using 0.5 to 1.0 mg/ml pepsin in Hanks’ salt solution. After 5 min the pepsin treatment preferentially removes fibroblasts, leaving a monolayer of purified epithelial cells that can be removed by pipetting and transferred to new culture vessels or injected into animals. This study was supported by Contract CB-43907 from the National Institutes of Health.