Why bovine serum albumin is used in cell culture media?

Answer 1

Foetal Bovine Serum (FBS) is the most widely used serum-supplement for the in vitro cell culture of eukaryotic cells. It provides a medium with very low levels of antibodies, with growth promoting factors, allowing for diversity in a wide range of cell cultures.

Answer 2

Serum is commonly used as a supplement to cell culture media. It supports cell growth and product formation by providing a broad spectrum of macromolecules, attachment factors, nutrients, and hormones and growth factors. The most commonly used animal serum supplement is fetal bovine serum, FBS (or alternatively called FCS, fetal calf serum). Since serum in general is an ill-defined component in cell culture media, there is a push to replace it with more defined components. BSA is sometimes used, rather than FBS as it is more defined that FBS, but less supportive. BSA is cheaper than HSA (human serum albumin) and is hence more commonly used, although using HSA would mean animal product-free media. A key focus in cell Biology is to find information that is as close to what is happening in the organism of interest as possible. Media without serum, or animal products is ideal for studying the role and function of small molecule drug candidates in culture, before testing it in mice and clinical trials.