Hi, I will be culturing BM-MSCs in DMEM culture media, based on the literature, I will add 10% FBS and pen/strep... except when I checked the one that we have, I found that we only have pen/strep+glutamine. Is it safe to add glutamine to the medium? or should I just not add any pen/strep in this case?
Hello Amal Kassab,
When glutamine is present as an amino acid residue in proteins or peptides, it is stable. This conditionally essential amino acid is a freely soluble neutral amino acid containing an R-group amide. As it is unstable, it can break down non-enzymatically into ammonia and pyroglutamate in liquid media.
So, it is better not to add glutamine to the culture media. If sterility is well maintained, then there is no need to add pen/strep in the culture media.
L-glutamine is an essential supplement providing energy to rapidly dividing cells such as cancer cell lines.
Glutamine appears to be essential for cancer cells beyond the need as a nitrogen source but also as a key metabolite that participates in central carbon metabolism as well as energy production.
Cancer cells consume glutamine at exceedingly high rates to fulfill their energetic and biosynthetic requirements for proliferation. Also, glutamine supports the maintenance of stem cell phenotype by promoting glutathione synthesis and thus maintaining redox balance.
Best.
I work in BM-MSC culture within 6 years. In my experience, these cells have a better kinetic when cultured with a supply of 1% of L-Glutamine in the medium. So, you can add it without regards!
Thank you, based on what I read so far, it depends on what you want to do with the MSCs, if you want to proliferate, differentiate, or put them in a quiescent state... for example, my DMEM is normal, but in some publications they use low glucose DMEM... I am trying to keep them in a quiescent state as much as possible, for as long as possible, so I'm considering encapsulating them in a gel, probably with some growth factors to ensure their quiescence.
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