title: Systematic evaluation of sericin protein as a substitute for fetal bovine serum in cell culture.
abstract: Fetal bovine serum (FBS) shows obvious deficiencies in cell culture, such as low batch to batch consistency, adventitious biological contaminant risk, and high cost, which severely limit the development of the cell culture industry. Sericin protein derived from the silkworm cocoon has become increasingly popular due to its diverse and beneficial cell culture characteristics. However, systematic evaluation of sericin as a substitute for FBS in cell culture medium remains limited. In this study, we conducted cellular morphological, physiological, and transcriptomic evaluation on three widely used mammalian cells. Compared with cells cultured in the control, those cultured in sericin-substitute medium showed similar cellular morphology, similar or higher cellular overall survival, lower population doubling time (PDT), and a higher percentage of S-phase with similar G2/G1 ratio, indicating comparable or better cell growth and proliferation. At the transcriptomic level, differentially expressed genes between cells in the two media were mainly enriched in function and biological processes related to cell growth and proliferation, reflecting that genes were activated to facilitate cell growth and proliferation. The results of this study suggest that cells cultured in sericin-substituted medium perform as well as, or even better than, those cultured in FBS-containing medium.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China.|Kunming College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China.
authors.forename: Liyuan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China.
authors.forename: Jinhuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Kunming University of Science and Technology, 727 South Jingming Road, Chenggong District, Kunming 650500, China.
authors.forename: Shengchang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China.|Kunming College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China.|South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: Kunming University of Science and Technology, 727 South Jingming Road, Chenggong District, Kunming 650500, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China.|Kunming University of Science and Technology, 727 South Jingming Road, Chenggong District, Kunming 650500, China.
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002453:Cell Cycle; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival; D003470:Culture Media; D006801:Humans; D047030:Sericins / Q000378:metabolism*; D044967:Serum
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D047030:Sericins