I want to stimulate my cells with IL-13, but IL-13 should be reconstitued in 0,1% BSA buffer for long term storage (recommended by the producer). Are there any unexpected effects of BSA on the cells? Before stimulation the cells will be starved. The expressions of different cytokines, chemokines (RT-PCR, ELISA) will be measured in these experiments. Thanks!
The effect of BSA on "most" cells are generally benign, especially in the concentrations used. But to be absolutely sure that you don't have an effect you should use a vehicle control to make sure that BSA does not have an effect on the cells.
There ARE effects of BSA on the cytokines however. We use some IL-6 family cytokines and BSA of some formulations can have adverse effects on our cytokine activity, so in some cases, we avoid using BSA. So you should first test with BSA free aliquots and compare it with aliquots containing BSA to make sure BSA does not affect your cytokine. We are not sure of the mechanism why sometimes it interferes, but we suspect that since some of our proteins are very sticky, it may bind to BSA in a manner that reduces it's receptor binding potential. Other times we found out that our supposedly Igg-free, protease free BSA has some protease activity and chews up our protein that we want to preserve. So we mainly buy from Jackson immunologicals and get their IGG and Protease free BSA, filter sterlize, and we never have had any problems since. Sigma Aldrich also sells cryoprotectant formulations with BSA added specifically for long term storage of proteins and antibodies as well.
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