Serum is the fraction of blood remaining after coagulation and centrifugation of the cellular parts. It provides an extreme complex mixture of plasma proteins, growth factors, hormones etc. that makes Fetal Bovine Serum the commonly used supplement in cell culture. Components may vary according to origin, nutritive conditions and processing. Because of these natural variations it is necessary to do batch testing.
S 40500, Fetal Bovine Serum
Fetal bovine serum, South America, Virus and mycoplasma tested 500 ml
The high quality of Seraglob sera is based on the careful selection of raw serum, an optimized filtration process and sterile bottling: The aseptic filling of sera results in an aerea of the purity class A with a background environment of the purity class B according to the complementary GMP guidelines for the manufacture of sterile drugs, annex 1.
Growth support level of sera in cell and tissue culture is determined through extensive biological testing, including growth tests with a range of commonly used cell lines. All sera have to test negative for mycoplasma. The release of the sera is only effected after a negative result.
Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) and Newborn Calf Serum are examined to exclude viruses such as Bovine Virus Diarrhoea (BVD-MD), Bovine Herpes Virus type 1 (BHV-1), and Parainfluenza Virus type 3 (PI-3). Test results have to prove negative with respect to cytopathogenicity and immunperoxidase staining. FBS is screened also for antibodies against these virus types.
For FBS, an independent laboratory raises a range of physicochemical data, provided to customers together with the sample.
Sample request FBS
Details of Fetal Bovine Serum
Sterile Filtration
Like all liquid products (media, additives), animal sera are sterilized using the membrane filtration technique with pore size <0.2 µm for sera in general, media and additives. For FBS, a filter pore size with 0.1 µm is used as standard.
Sterility Control
Aliquots of each lot are inoculated into tryptone soya broth and thioglycollate. The full sterility control procedure. All products of animal source like serum or trypsin are screened through standard procedures for mycoplasma contamination.
Storage
Due to their sensitivity against enzymatic decomposition, animal sera have to be stored at temperatures -20°C. All data prove excellent stability, and performance of the sera for at least 60 months.
Sampling and Shipment
Samples are available for all sera, FBS in particular, free of charge. To order test samples, please fill in our form, since it contains all specifications required. Your reservation will be kept for the testing period. Shipment of sera is made at ≤ -20 °C on dry ice and within 36 hours.
Thawing and Freezing of Fetal Bovine Serum
To prevent formation of high salt concentrations, the thawing procedure should be kept short. We recommend to warm up the bottle for about half an hour at room temperature (until a liquid film has formed), then put it into the water bath.
Detailed information of thawing and freezing of sera
Heat Inactivation
Sera are undefined natural products. As such, in addition to containing growth-promoting substances they can also contain undesirable components (e.g. complement system). In order to reduce the content of interfering substances, many experimental procedures stipulate inactivation of the serum prior to use, using the so-called “heat inactivation” process. The serum is normally heated to +56 °C for 30 minutes.
Detailed information on heat inactivation
Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS)
Other designation: Fetal Calf Serum (FCS)
FBS is the most used supplement (2-20% in media) amongst cell culture systems and is also used to produce therapeutic proteins. FBS is a side product of the nutrition industry and is only obtained in areas with intensive cattle farming where enough cattle fetuses accrue.
The FBS origins moslty from low risk regions such as South America and Australia. It is regularly tested for endotoxines, mycoplasm, virus contamination and antibodies agains virus ( BVD-MD, BHV-1, P13).
What cells would you like to cultivate? We recommend suitable FBS batches for cultivation of amnion cells or hybridoma cells.
Seraglob offers FBS with the following preparations:
- γ-irradiated FBS (one irradiation to increase virus safety can be performed on request, irradiation dose ≥ 30 kGrays
- Active carbon treated (steroid hormone reduced) FBS
- Heat inactivated or dialysed (at extra charge)
(exclusion limit 12 – 14 kD) - Tetracycline-free FBS