Serum

Serum, produced from animal blood and fetal bovine serum, is the most widely used because it contains an especially high amount of growth factors due to its origin. Animal serum is a highly complex organic solution which contains a range of cellular components including vitamins, nutrients, nucleosides, amino acids, carbohydrates, hormones and more. Serum provides the necessary nutrition to a cell and is also an essential medium promoting most or all cellular functions. This is  essential to a healthy cell culture such as mitosis, attachment and proliferation.

The function of serum in cell culture

• stimulate cell growth, proliferate and differentiate through hormonal factors
• adhesion factors facilitate/enhance cell attachment on culture dishes
• transport and binding proteins provide hormons, minerals and lipids
• bind toxic substances through serum proteins