There appear to be a number of media on the market for serum free culture of HEK293 lines, but I am after some feedback of what might work most efficiently and any pitfalls to avoid. As with all of us, I guess, cost is an issue so any suggestions about the merits of adapting the line to low serum culture might also be helpful?
I've used Opti-MEM (invitrogen) for production of a secreted protein from 293-F cells, and I find it works nicely. The only thing I add are the usual supplements of non-essential amino acids, pen/strep, and whichever selection reagent you need (I use zeocin for stable cells). There is no tedious removal of extraneous proteins when you are trying to purify downstream, which makes life much easier. It's not particularly cheap, but I find it works very well with this cell line (which can be grown in serum-free conditions, or with serum, and in stationary or suspension cultures). I did notice that cell growth seems to slow when switching from serum-supplemented media to Opti-MEM, but I'm using it for production in terminal triple flasks, so as long as my cells are viable and making protein, growth isn't an issue for me. Good luck!
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