The development, benefits and disadvantages of serum-free media.
Serum-free culture is used routinely for many cell types, especially if transformed, e.g. CHO, hybridoma and recombinant myeloma cell lines. Serum-free medium reduces operating costs and process variability, and removes a potential source of infectious agents. The removal of the components of serum and the elimination of other animal-derived raw materials are proving more challenging. Nevertheless, careful risk/benefit analyses to target R&D toward critical materials is presenting several solutions in this area. A risk/benefit analysis is required for each component replacing serum or serum derivatives. Specific serum proteins used in serum-free media can be eliminated. At present large scale protein-free processes are not routine.
Lonza Biologics plc, Slough, UK.
S J
SJ
Froud
D000818:Animals; D001688:Biological Products / Q000592:standards*; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000592:standards*; D002461:Cell Line, Transformed; D016895:Culture Media, Serum-Free / Q000592:standards*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
D001688:Biological Products; D016895:Culture Media, Serum-Free