Application

Fetal Bovine Serum has been used as a supplement in cell culture media such as Roswell Park Memorial Institute medium (RPMI-1640) and Dulbecco′s Modified Eagles Media (DMEM) to support the growth of a variety of cell lines.

Biochem/physiol Actions

Fetal bovine serum (FBS) serves as a commonly utilized cell culture media supplement to support in vitro and ex vivo cell, tissue, and organ cultures. FBS remains a popular media supplement because it provides a wide array of functions in cell culture. FBS delivers nutrients, growth, and attachment factors and protects cells from oxidative damage and apoptosis by mechanisms that are difficult to reproduce in serum-free media (SFM) systems. It provides many non-defined growth-promoting and survival enhancing factors to cells in culture. Derived from clotted blood, it is the most widely used undefined supplement in eucaryotic, especially mammalian, cell culture. FBS is typically used with the classical media that were developed in the 1950s and 1960s. These include many popular media such as Minimum Essential Medium (MEM); Dulbecco′s Modified Eagles Media (DME, DMEM); Iscove′s Modified Eagles Medium (IMDM); M199 and Roswell Park Memorial Institute medium, RPMI-1640.