Hello Linwen Lv

Serum is a complex mixture, introducing undefined components into the medium. Many of these substances have not yet been identified, and in many cases the effects on cultured cells are yet unclear. Serum components, such as immunoglobulins (which may have inhibitory effects), endotoxins (indicative of bacterial contamination, but are also powerful cell mitogens), and hemoglobin (indicative of hemolysis during clotting) can have a negative impact on the cells. Serum contains growth factors which may dramatically affect the growth rate. Serum can interfere with phenotype of the cell by affecting gene and protein expression.

Thus, the use of excess amount of FBS can possibly lead to unexpected or undesired outcomes. Use of optimum FBS concentration in growth medium is recommended which is usually in the range of 5-10%. For B16F10 cells I use high-glucose DMEM supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum. So, I recommend that you should not change the FBS concentration from 10% to 20% to avoid any deleterious effect on B16F10.

Best.

Hi Linwen Lv,

Increasing the % of FBS would certainly help in accelerating the proliferation of your cells. But, it may also have unexpected outcomes when it comes to cell fitness and immunoregulatory activities. But such cells should not be preferred for regular experiments as they may lead to some circumstantial artifacts and unwarranted outcomes. I think it would be more appropriate to passage your cells in 10% FBS only. Nevertheless, you can try to grow them in 20% FBS also. For that, you may have to adapt your cells accordingly. For more insights, I recommend you to read this interesting research article.

Addressing the impact of different fetal bovine serum percentages on mesenchymal stem cells biological performance. DOI: 10.1007/s11033-019-04898-1.

Good luck :)

To Jatin Chadha

thank you, I have read the abstract of this article. Maybe FBS has similar influence on stem cells and tumor cell lines.