Alternatives to the use of fetal bovine serum: Serum-free cell culture (original) (raw)

Authors

Gerhard Gstraunthaler Department of Physiology, University of Innsbruck, A-Innsbruck

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14573/altex.2003.4.257

Keywords:

cell and tissue culture, serum-free cell culture, in vitro, chemically defined media, alternatives to animal-derived products, replacement, 3R-principles, fetal bovine (calf) serum, vegetal serum, animal welfare

Abstract

Serum is commonly used as a supplement to cell culture media. It provides a broad spectrum of macromolecules, carrier proteins for lipoid substances and trace elements, attachment and spreading factors, low molecular weight nutrients, and hormones and growth factors. The most widely used animal serum supplement is fetal bovine serum, FBS. Since serum in general is an ill-defined component in cell culture media, a number of chemically defined serum-free media formulations have been developed in the last two decades. Besides modern cell biological advances in cell and tissue culture and efforts towards a standardisation of cell culture protocols in Good Cell Culture Practice, in addition, considerable ethical concerns were raised recently about the harvest and collection of fetal bovine serum. Thus, in order to decrease the annual need for bovine fetuses in terms of the 3Rs through any reduction in the use or partial replacement of serum, as well as in terms of an improvement of cell and tissue culture methodology, serum-free cell culture represents a modern, valuable and scientifically well accepted alternative to the use of FBS in cell and tissue culture.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is appropriately cited (CC-BY). Copyright on any article in ALTEX is retained by the author(s).

How to Cite

David Pamies, Marcel Leist, Sandra Coecke, Gerard Bowe, David G. Allen, Gerhard Gstraunthaler, Anna Bal-Price, Francesca Pistollato, Rob B. M. de Vries, Helena T. Hogberg, Thomas Hartung, Glyn Stacey, Guidance document on Good Cell and Tissue Culture Practice 2.0 (GCCP 2.0), ALTEX - Alternatives to Animal Experimentation: Vol. 39 No. 1 (2022)
Jan van der Valk, Karen Bieback, Christiane Buta, Brett Cochrane, Wilhelm G. Dirks, Jianan Fu, James J. Hickman, Christiane Hohensee, Roman Kolar, Manfred Liebsch, Francesca Pistollato, Markus Schulz, Daniel Thieme, Tilo Weber, Joachim Wiest, Stefan Winkler, Gerhard Gstraunthaler, Fetal bovine serum (FBS): Past – present – future, ALTEX - Alternatives to Animal Experimentation: Vol. 35 No. 1 (2018)
Daniel Brunner, Jürgen Frank, Helmut Appl, Harald Schöffl, Walter Pfaller, Gerhard Gstraunthaler, The serum-free media interactive online database, ALTEX - Alternatives to Animal Experimentation: Vol. 27 No. 1 (2010)
David Pamies, Anna Bal-Price, Christophe Chesné, Sandra Coecke, Andras Dinnyes, Chantra Eskes, Regina Grillari, Gerhard Gstraunthaler, Thomas Hartung, Paul Jennings, Marcel Leist, Ulrich Martin, Robert Passier, Jens C. Schwamborn, Glyn N. Stacey, Heidrun Ellinger-Ziegelbauer, Mardas Daneshian, Advanced Good Cell Culture Practice for human primary, stem cell-derived and organoid models as well as microphysiological systems, ALTEX - Alternatives to Animal Experimentation: Vol. 35 No. 3 (2018)
David Pamies, Marcel Leist, Sandra Coecke, Gerard Bowe, Dave Allen, Gerhard Gstraunthaler, Anna Bal-Price, Francesca Pistollato, Rob deVries, Thomas Hartung, Glyn Stacey, Good Cell and Tissue Culture Practice 2.0 (GCCP 2.0) – Draft for stakeholder discussion and call for action, ALTEX - Alternatives to Animal Experimentation: Vol. 37 No. 3 (2020)
Caroline Rauch, Elisabeth Feifel, Eva-Maria Amann, Hans Peter Spötl, Harald Schennach, Walter Pfaller, Gerhard Gstraunthaler, Alternatives to the use of fetal bovine serum: Human platelet lysates as a serum substitute in cell culture media, ALTEX - Alternatives to Animal Experimentation: Vol. 28 No. 4 (2011)
Thomas Hartung, Gerhard Gstraunthaler, Sandra Coecke, David Lewis, Olivier Blank, Michael Balls, [Good Cell Culture Practice(GCCP) - an Initiative for Standardisation and Quality Assurance of in vitro Studies. The Establishment of an ECVAM Task Force on GCCP] [Article in German], ALTEX - Alternatives to Animal Experimentation: Vol. 18 No. 1 (2001)
Jan van der Valk, Maria Laura Scarino, Lisbeth Knudsen, Gerhard Gstraunthaler, Copenhagen: Improving in vitro methods by developing and using defined culture media, ALTEX - Alternatives to Animal Experimentation: Vol. 27 No. 1 (2010)