Historically, explant culture has been used in several areas of biological research.
Organogenesis and
morphogenesis in fetus have been studied with explant cultures. Since the explant culture is grown in the lab, the area or cells of interest can be labeled with fluorescent markers. These transgenic labels can help researchers observe growth of specific cells. For example, neural tissue development and central nervous system regeneration have been studied with organotypic explant culture. Even with all the advantages to explant culture, there still are several caveats. The downside of explant culture is that it does not provide sufficient time to study chronic diseases. Although two to three weeks may be enough time to study acute changes, it is not fit for experiments requiring long-term observations. ==Current research==