I am working on cells requiring EMEM as the growth media, however, the batch that I have are expiring soon. I want to know if this will have a major effect on the cells in terms of their growth or attachment?
One has to consider several aspects. Cell types and strains vary greatly in their sensitivity to the medium quality and cultivation conditions. You do not state what cells you cultivate - there are guys that can "chew" nearly everything and others that are rather picky, pardon my language. Further, let us assume that the medium was stored properly, because light, temperature atmosphere exposures can dramatically contribute to its depreciation.
I will be a devil's advocate, in my 8+ year cell culture experience medium that was nearly expiring was typically safe to use. You will not be completely sure unless you perform a small comparison trial with your cells though. Decide on how rare cells you handle and how important is the experiment. If you have any doubts, purchase a new batch and use the highest quality material. As a rule, the most expensive thing is your time after all.
PS. if you supplement your EMEM with serum or a proliferation supplement, there the quality really matters a lot and it is essential to maintain absolute consistency in material used across your experiments especially if you aim at drawing any comparisons later.
Thank you for your answer. I'm currently culturing HeLa and Vero cells
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