In case one is interested in looking for the effect of specific growthfactors on cells,should FBS still be added to a culture medium or else serum starved/serum free medium To avoid confounding ?
It is advisable to use serum starved cells and perform the experiment when appropriate. When to perform the assays after adding only medium would depend on the cell type, some cells are more resistant to live for hours without factors in FBS, whereas other cells are more susceptible.
Hi, Qazi.
In serum-starved cells, previous stimuli by growth factors in serum could persist over 18h. Need enough time to look at the effects of a specific GF in subsequent serum-free culture. For cell maintenance and stabilization of the plasma membranes properly, use serum-depleted (~1-2%). In this system it is expected that any GFs present in low serum may well be far below the thresholds of ligands occupied by a small portion of cells having the specific receptors. In serum-free culture, cells never be happy and fed with nitrogenous nutrients. Therefore, proper cell responses are not expected. The Most of cells are virtually in arrested G1 or G0 for some time even if the cells are induced by a specific growth factor. Cell culture mimics in vivo condition. There is no time for cell never get continuous supply of nitrogenous compounds from the body fluids surrounding cells in vivo.
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