A Comprehensive Review of Cell Culture Media

Cell culture is one of the major techniques in the life sciences. The most important and crucial step in cell culture is choosing an appropriate growth medium. A typical culture medium consists of a complement of amino acids, vitamins, inorganic salts, glucose, and serum as a source of growth factors, hormones, and attachment factors. In addition to nutrients, the medium also helps maintain pH and osmolality.

1. A Review of Cell Culture Media Cell culture is one of the main techniques in the life sciences. The most important and crucial step in cell culture is choosing an appropriate growth medium. A typical culture medium consists of a complement of amino acids, vitamins, inorganic salts, glucose, and serum as a source of growth factors, hormones, and attachment factors. In addition to nutrients, the medium also helps maintain pH and osmolality.

2. Website: www.creative-bioarray.com E-mail: [email protected] Types of Cell Culture Media Natural media consist solely of naturally occurring biological fluids… Artificial or synthetic media are prepared by adding nutrients, vitamins… Natural Media Artificial Media

3. Four Categories of Artificial Media Chemically defined media contain contamination-free ultra pure inorganic and organic ingredients, and may also contain pure protein additives, like growth factors… Chemically Defined Media Protein-free media do not contain any protein. Compared to serum-supplemented media, use of protein-free media promotes superior cell growth and protein expression… Protein-Free Media Serum provides carriers or chelators for labile or water-insoluble nutrients, hormones and growth factors, protease inhibitors, and binds and neutralizes toxic moieties… Serum Containing Media Serum-free media are generally specifically formulated to support the culture of a single cell type, and incorporate defined quantities of purified growth factors… Serum-Free Media

4. Website: www.creative-bioarray.com E-mail: [email protected] Basic Components of Culture Media Culture media contain a mixture of amino acids, glucose, salts, vitamins, and other nutrients, and available either as a powder or as a liquid form from commercial suppliers. The requirements for these components vary among cell lines, and these differences are partly responsible for the extensive number of medium formulations. Each component performs a specific function, as described below:

5. Phenol Red HEPES Natural Buffering System Buffering Systems Website: www.creative-bioarray.com E-mail: [email protected]

6. Inorganic Salt Website: www.creative-bioarray.com E-mail: [email protected] Inorganic salt in the media helps to retain the osmotic balance and help in regulating membrane potential by providing sodium, potassium, and calcium ions.

7. Amino Acids Website: www.creative-bioarray.com E-mail: [email protected] Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, and thus are obligatory ingredients of all known cell culture media. Essential amino acids must be included in the culture media as cells can not synthesize these by themselves. They are required for the proliferation of cells and their concentration determines the maximum achievable cell density. L-glutamine, an essential amino acid, is particularly important. Nonessential amino acids may also be added to the medium to replace those that have been depleted during growth. Supplementation of media with non-essential amino acids stimulates growth and prolongs the viability of the cells.

8. Carbohydrates in the form of sugars are the major source of energy. Most of the media contain glucose and galactose, however, some contain maltose and fructose. The most commonly used proteins and peptides are albumin, transferrin, and fibronectin. They are particularly important in serum-free media. Vitamins cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by cells and are therefore important supplements required in tissue culture. They are particularly important in serum-free media as they are generally present in serum. Carbohydrates Protein & peptides Fatty acids & lipids Vitamins

9. Trace elements Trace elements are often supplemented to serum-free media to replace those normally found in serum. These micronutrients are essential for many biological processes, e.g., the maintenance of the functionality of enzymes. Supplements help sustain proliferation and maintain normal cell metabolism. The shelf life of the growth media changes after the addition of supplements. Complete media containing protein supplement tend to degrade faster than basal media alone. Although not required for cell growth, antibiotics are often used to control the growth of bacterial and fungal contaminants. Media supplements Antibiotics

10. It provides several binding proteins like albumin, transferrin, which can carry other molecules into the cell. It also supplies proteins, like fibronectin, which promote the attachment of cells to the substrate. It provides protease inhibitors which protect cells from proteolysis. It also provides minerals, like Na + , K + , Zn 2+ , Fe 2+ , etc. It increases the viscosity of the medium and thus, protects cells from mechanical damages during agitation of suspension cultures. It also acts a buffer. Serum in Media Serum is a complex mix of albumins, growth factors and growth inhibitors. Serum is one of the most important components of cell culture media and serves as a source for amino acids, proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates, lipids, hormones, growth factors, minerals, and trace elements. Serum from fetal and calf bovine sources are commonly used to support the growth of cells in culture. Advantages of serum in media Disadvantages of serum in media Serum contains various growth factors and hormones which stimulates cell growth and functions. Lack of uniformity in the composition of serum Helps in the attachment of cells Testing needs to be done to maintain the quality of each batch before using Acts as a spreading factor May contain some of the growth inhibiting factors Acts as a buffering agent which helps in maintaining the pH of the culture media Increase the risk of contamination Functions as a binding protein Presence of serum in media may interfere with the purification and isolation of cell culture products Minimizes mechanical damages or damages caused by viscosity

11. Criteria for Selecting Media The choice of cell culture media is extremely important, and significantly affects the success of cell culture experiments. The selection of the media depends on the type of cells to be cultured and also the purpose of the culture and resources available in the laboratory.

12. Website: www.creative-bioarray.com E-mail: [email protected] Cell Line Culture Different cell types have highly specific growth requirements, therefore, the most suitable media for each cell type must be determined experimentally. Cell Line Morphology Species Medium Applications HeLa B Epithelial Human MEM+ 2mM Glutamine+ 10% FBS + 1% Non Essential Amino Acids (NEAA) Tumourigenicity and virus studies HL60 Lymphoblast Human RPMI 1640 + 2mM Glutamine + 10-20% FBS Differentiation studies 3T3 clone A31 Fibroblast Mouse DMEM + 2mM Glutamine +5% New Born Calf Serum (NBCS) + 5% FBS Tumourigenicity and virus studies COS-7 Fibroblast Monkey DMEM+ 2mM Glutamine + 10% FBS Gene expression and virus replication studies CHO Epithelial Hamster Ham′s F12 + 2mM Glutamine + 10% FBS Nutritional and gene expression studies HEK 293 Epithelial Human EMEM (EBSS) + 2mM Glutamine + 1% Non Essential Amino Acids (NEAA) + 10% FBS Transformation studies HUVEC Endothelial Human F-12 K + 10% FBS + 100 µg/ml Heparin Angiogenesis studies Jurkat Lymphoblast Human RPMI-1640 + 10% FBS Signaling studies

13. Website: www.creative-bioarray.com E-mail: [email protected] Primary Cell Culture Primary cell culture provides unique and valuable research data, but most of the time cell number is the limitation. For such critical samples, especially from diseased human biopsies, a quality medium is required. Creative Bioarray provides complete and ready to use, fully supplemented conditioned medium. This reduces the risk of contamination as well as save time, labor and money by eliminating the preparation steps and supplementation required. Moreover, all of these media are subjected to comprehensive quality control tests and each lot is routinely tested for growth promotion, the absence of cytotoxicity, and physical parameters such as osmolality and pH level.

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