title: Complete replacement of serum by albumin, transferrin, and soybean lipid in cultures of lipopolysaccharide-reactive B lymphocytes.
abstract: Albumin, transferrin, and lipids can replace serum entirely for support of LPS-stimulated murine B lymphocytes in culture. In the presence of these compounds, growth and maturation to IgM and IgG secretion, induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS), occurs at the same or higher efficiency in serum-free conditions as in conventional serum-containing medium, even at relatively low cell concentrations. In contrast to the rapid disappearance of LPS reactivity in conventional serum-containing medium, responsiveness remains at initial levels in serum-free conditions for 2 days before slowly declining. Overall lymphocyte survival is also markedly prolonged. In the presence of thymus "filler" cells, the serum-free conditions permit growth of every LPS-responsive cell to a clone of Ig-secreting cells at dilutions as low  as a single reactive B cell per culture. The results have several important implications. These include the establishment for the first time of transferrin as a requirement for B lymphocyte responses in culture, and the availability now of conditions for the assay isolation of cell products regulating lymphocyte function, free of interference from undefined serum components.
mesh_terms: D000418:Albumins; D000818:Animals; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D001769:Blood; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003470:Culture Media; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000378:metabolism; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000378:metabolism; D008055:Lipids; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000494:pharmacology; D051379:Mice; D051381:Rats; D014168:Transferrin
chemical_list: D000418:Albumins; D003470:Culture Media; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M; D008055:Lipids; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D014168:Transferrin