heat inactivated serum

[wangleipurdue]

Dear all,

I　need to culture MCF10 A in near future. And this kind of cell needs horse serum in medium. I checked with Invitrogen and Sigma, both of them provide two different kinds of sera: one is heat inactivated; another one is not. I have no idea about the difference between those two kinds of sera. Is there anyone have any clues about it? Will we lose some nutrients by heating the serum? If so, what is the heat inactivated serum for?

Thanks.

Lei

[atiahwaz]

hi

Since serum is a blood product, it contains complement,
which can lead to complement-mediated cell lysis. To eliminate
this risk, serum can be heat-inactivated. Heat inactivation
destroys the complement, but can also destroy heatlabile
growth factors, vitamins, amino acids, and hormones
present in serum. Damage to these from extended heating
or from temperatures greater than 56C will decrease cell
growth. Heating oftentimes can cause the proteins and
lipids concentrated at the bottom to appear as white globules.
Constant swirling during the heat inactivation process
will help solve this problem.