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Cell Culture Media

Cell Culture Media


Cell culture media is arguably one of the most important aspects of cell culture. It is the growth medium in which the cells will be able to grow. As such, it must be chosen to provide a suitable nutrient mix to enable fully grown, viable, useable cells. The correct medium can determine the difference between cell culture success or failure.

The correct medium provides everything that the growing and dividing cells need in order to flourish. This includes minerals, ions, amino acids and sugars, as well as maintaining the correct pH in which the cells can grow. It can also contain lipids, such as fatty acids or even complex lipids such as cholesterol. Macromolecules such as adenosine can also be present. Although cells can normally synthesize these, nevertheless, their presence may aid cell growth.

Many vitamins and minerals are present with the cell culture medium. Vitamins A, D and C are unstable in solution however. They may be present in solution, but will not be active for long. If these are required, then they must be added later as the cells begin to grow. Cell cultures also need an energy source. This is present in the form of glucose at varying concentrations. Usually this can range from between 0.8 and 5g per litre.

The cell culture media available today can be selected to not only suit the cell line being considered, but also to determine the rate of growth. A nutrient-rich high energy medium would be selected to induce rapid cell growth and duplication. Whereas to maintain a cell at a slow even rate of growth, a more evenly balanced, maintaining medium is chosen.

Supplementation of media is common. Usually foetal calf serum is used. However, other types of supplement such as horse serum, or even milk are used. These can provide plasma proteins such as albumin, transferrin and insulin and various other growth factors and growth inhibitors. While serum can provide a host of extra nutrients to encourage cell growth, the variability of its composition can detract from its benefits.

Cell culture is a important factor in the biopharmaceutical industry and as such is a valuable resource. The development of new media is always important which can maximise productivity whilst minimising the total number of components required.  However, the industry is far from the standardisation required and there are many different types available. Cell culture media must be chosen wisely for cells which show replicable growth and genetic stability.