What is fetal bovine serum used for

Widely used serum-supplement for cell culture

Fetal bovine serum (FBS) is the most widely used serum-supplement for the in vitro cell culture of eukaryotic cells.

This is due to it having a very low level of antibodies and containing more growth factors, allowing for versatility in many cell culture applications. Fetal bovine serum is derived from the blood drawn from a bovine fetus via a closed system of collection at the slaughterhouse.

The globular protein bovine serum albumin (BSA) is a major component of fetal bovine serum.

Why is fetal bovine serum used in cell culture

Besides BSA, fetal bovine serum is a rich source of growth and attachment factors, lipids, hormones, nutrients and electrolytes necessary to support cell growth in culture. It is typically added to basal cell culture medium, such as DMEM or RPMI, at a 5–10% concentration.

Because it is a biological product, FBS is not a fully defined media component, and as such varies in composition between batches.^[1] As a result of this and in an attempt to minimize the possibility of transfer of adventitious agents, serum-fr

human and fetal bovine serum

what does fetal bovine serum contain