Hello Alexandra Johansson

May be this chemically defined medium you could try out. Please refer to the link below.

https://www.mpbio.com/in/092640049-fastgro-synthetic-animal-free-chemically-defined-fbs-replacement-cf

Good Luck.

Hello Malcolm Nobre ,

It looks very promising, thank you so much!!

Hi Alexandra Johansson . You have to take into account that you are working with human cells that have been isolated, grown, immortalized and propagated for countless generations using animal serum and animal products.

Every single study ever published using these cells have used animal products. It is asking a lot to radically change their growth media and expect them to behave "normally" as described in many decades of published papers.

What I'm trying to say here, and this is not nice (sorry), you will have a very hard time publishing anything on established cell lines using animal-product-free media.

Hello Steingrimur Stefansson,

Thank you for your input! I completely understand where you are coming from and I am sure that changing the “traditional” way of culturing cells may come with its challenges. However I believe that challenges are to be faced and not to stand in the way of improvement and evolution. Using FBS has proven to be unsustainable, unreliable and unethically sourced. Therefore, since there are alternatives that have been shown to be equally, if not even better in some cases, in terms of cell growth, also providing the additional safety of consistency and all known substances, I believe that there is no longer a reason to use FBS. Improving our way of culturing cells is a very big and positive change in the world of research which has already begun a few years ago and I am eager to contribute to it!

Thank you for your concern. I hope this thread sparks your interest to take a further look into this topic and even explore some of the alternatives. You might be happily surprised!

Hej Alexandra Johansson . I admire your drive and ideology and I do not disagree with the concept, but you have to face todays reality.

-Mammalian cell culture has and always will use serum for propagation because all mammalian cells are fed by a blood supply in vivo.

-Tissue culture reagents, including FBS, is big business. If FBS becomes unsustainable, the industry will switch to adult serum supplemented with growth factors. It is already happening.

-If animal-free TC cell media catches on, it will have to start from the bottom-up. That is: isolate, characterize, grow and propagate new cells in animal-free media and publish. You don't start from the top-down, like putting established THP-1 in animal-free media and expect to be published without serious critique.

-Maybe analogies would help. Kerosene replaced whale oil, synthetic fabrics replaced animal fur, electric cars will replace gasoline cars, renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal) will replace carbon based energy.........What do the replacements have in common? They are bottom-up technologies that eventually led to discarded established ways.

Hej Steingrimur Stefansson ,

Interesting perspective! While all you mentioned above are true, FBS replacements are not as understudied as one would think.. The use of FBS has been questioned ever since it was introduced and concerns as well as need for better options have been expressed for at least two decades now.

If serum-free media wouldn’t work for you here’s another option as an example:

https://www.pl-bioscience.com

They have developed animal-free alternatives from human platelet lysates and present interesting data among with studies to go along with them.

In any case, aligning my work with my ethics is one of my priorities but at the end of the day it is up to each individual to make that decision. I can only hope that more researchers will choose to work in a more sustainable and ethical way when the possibility arises. It will definitely be interesting to see how things progress in the future.

Thank you for a constructive debate!

Hej Alexandra Johansson . All the best to you. Please do not be too confrontational in your progress. Mundu bara að rödd þín er sterkari því hærra sem þú klifrar.

Dear Alexandra,

congratulations on working on such an innovative and timely research project! Culture media such as FBS are being used since the 1950's. Today many experts will agree that the use of FBS is associated with a number of problematic scientific, legal, safety and ethical issues. For a good overview of this problem I suggest that interested RG members should read the following very interesting review article (I'm sure you know it already):

Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS): Past – Present – Future

https://www.altex.org/index.php/altex/article/view/101/139

Quite remarkably, it is pointed out in this paper that (citation): "The whole process of obtaining blood from a living calf fetus to using the FBS produced from it for scientific purposes is de facto not yet legally regulated despite the existing EU-Directive 2010/63/EU on the use of animals for scientific purposes."

Also please see the following more recent article in which the problem is addressed:

Alternative to FBS in animal cell culture - An overview and future perspective

Article Alternative to FBS in animal cell culture - An overview and ...

Mainly due to the severe ethical implications of extracting FBS (cardiac puncture of the unanaesthesized fetus, cf. the following RG link: Article The Use of Fetal Bovine Serum: Ethical or Scientific Problem?

Most likely, when you are working on such an innovative project intended to change old habits, established (old-fashioned?) researchers will show up and try to discourage you. Don't worry about this and keep on going with your valuable research work!

Good luck and best wishes, Frank Edelmann