Why does fbs need to be heat inactivated

On occasion heat inactivation of serum is used because of previous history in the laboratory or for the convenience of stocking only one kind of serum.

In past years, Coriell used all heat-inactivated serum for its cell cultures to inactivate the complement protein found in newborn calf serum. Since we have changed to fetal bovine serum, we find that heat inactivation is not necessary for most cell lines. Occasionally we do find a differentiated cell line that grows better in heat inactivated serum, but for most lymphoblast and fibroblast lines it does not seem to make a difference whether the serum is heat inactivated or not.

The online Coriell catalogs list the serum that was used to create the initial cell line either heat inactivated or "not inactivated". Horseshoe crabs. Figure 2. Permission from Life Technologies Gibco, the copyright owner. Figure 3. Permission from Thermo Fisher Scientific, the copyright owner. Shah G. Why do we still use serum in the production of biopharmaceuticals?. Dev Biol Stand. Serum-free hybridoma culture: ethical, scientific and safety considerations.

Trends Biotechnol. Human serum alters cell culture behavior and improves spheroid formation in comparison to fetal bovine serum. Exp Cell Res. H3K9me3-heterochromatin loss at protein-coding genes enables developmental lineage specification. Cytometry A. Reprod Fertil Dev. Serum and plasma proteomics. Chem Rev. Anderson N, Anderson N. The human plasma proteome: history, character, and diagnostic prospects.

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Squalene accumulation in cholesterol auxotrophic lymphomas prevents oxidative cell death. If it is experimentally determined that heat inactivation is required, however, the most common procedure and the one recommended by the TCF is as follows:. In summary, there may be few reasons to heat inactivate serum.

Those reasons should be experimentally determined and documented. In most cases heat inactivation does not improve growth promotion and may actually have adverse effects. Also, heat inactivation can cause an increase in the formation of precipitates that are often mistaken as microbial contamination.

If heat inactivation is necessary, strictly follow a repeatable procedure. Consistency in the way serum is thawed, handled, and stored can play a significant role in consistency of cell growth and repeatability in experimentation.

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