Abstract
Fetal bovine serum (FBS) is depended upon by investigators as an indispensable supplement in cell and tissue culture systems. Due to increased demand and limited availability, the price of FBS has increased by greater than 300% in the past few years. In addition, there are ethical and scientific controversies about the collection and use of FBS in culture systems. In response to the shortage of FBS, many FBS alternative serum products have been developed. Although many have claimed comparable performance to FBS, their support of long-term cell growth and effects on cell phenotype have not been revealed. In this study, we examined the performances of six bovine calf serum-based FBS alternatives in six head and neck cell lines and compared them with FBS. The results indicate that some of these sera had growth promoting capabilities comparable or superior to that of FBS. Additionally, these alternative sera supported long-term (30 passages) growth of tested cells and exhibited plating efficiencies comparable to that of FBS. Cells cultured in alternative sera also exhibited comparable anchorage-independent growth and similar drug inhibition responses in FBS. Still, caution should be taken in choosing suitable sera given that changes in cell morphology and variations in chemotactic responses were noted for cells maintained in certain sera. These FBS alternatives are more readily available, cost less, and are associated with less ethical concerns, thus making them attractive alternatives to FBS in cell culture systems.
Highlights
Cell and tissue culture is an indispensable methodology for the research community and biotechnology, pharmaceutical and diagnostics industries
Given that most cell lines were constructed and/or maintained in fetal bovine serum (FBS)-containing medium, the switch to calf serum-based alternatives might have less impact on cells compared with serum products based on other animals or serum-free products
Despite gentle treatment by Accutase, cells cultured in Newborn calf serum (NBCS)-containing medium still exhibited delayed attachment and poor extension. This result indicated that trypsin is unlikely the factor that contributed to the poor cell attachment/extension in NBCS medium
Summary
Cell and tissue culture is an indispensable methodology for the research community and biotechnology, pharmaceutical and diagnostics industries. The use of cell and tissue culture has been increasing exponentially since its introduction. The supplementation of basal culture media with animal-derived products, mainly animal serum, is essential in cell culture for proper cell growth. Among several common animal sera, fetal bovine serum (FBS) has been the most used cell culture supplement. FBS has very low level of antibodies and contains more growth factors than calf and adult bovine serum, allowing the propagation of most types of human and animal cells. A number of synthetic serum-free media have been developed, FBS continues to be depended upon by numerous investigators given that it works well in cell culture systems
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