I am investigating the affects of serum and serum free culture on the translational capacity of MSCs. I have found the MSCs translate better in serum conditions. Why would this be?
Since serum contains lots of mitogenic ligands (mainly peptides), nitrogenic compounds to be utilized by any cells, various nutrients already supporting the growth and maintenance. Some of the serum components may be replaced by the chemically-defined components or serum concentration may be reduced, however, without it cells may be arrested (no cell division) or unhappy only in salts, amino acids and sugars etc. No transcription, no translation in the arrested cells.
Dominik Egger, I meant that Mesenchymal Stem cells particularly the bone-marrow cell lines I used experienced an increase in their translational capacity cultured in serum containing media compared to serum-starved media.