Panserin 401, Serum-free Allround Medium, w: L-Glutamine

Panserin 401 is a fully defined complete ready-to-use medium for the serum-free cultivation of a multitude of adherent and non adherent cells.

Composition

Based on Iscove's MEM, trace elements, albumin, cholesterol, soya lipids and vitamins were added to the medium. It does not contain any growth or attachment factors.

Suitability

Panserin 401 is a multi-purpose medium suitable for a variety of cells. As the medium contains no growth factors there is a possibility to investigate the effects of specific growth factors added to the cell culture. Panserin 401 does not contain any attachment factors. With some cell types a pre-treatment of the cell culture vessels with gelatine, collagen, poly-D-lysine or fibronectin may support or enable a culture under serum-free conditions. Please note that a coating may be especially important with low seeding densities. With every adaption to serum-free media, changes of the cells should be taken into consideration. These changes may concern morphology, karyotype, surface markers and so on. Thus cells in serum-free medium may not be identical with those from cultures containing serum in which they originated (selection).

Among others the following cells have been cultivated successfully:

• Hybridoma
• Lymphocytes
• Macrophages
• Fibroblasts
• Melanocytes
• Carcinoma-cells
• HEK-cells
• HeLa-cells
• CHO-cells

Application

Switching from serum-containing medium to Panserin is possible for many cells without special adaptation. For cell lines that do not tolerate such a simple switch to Panserin, we recommend culturing the cells in Panserin supplemented with serum and gradually reducing the serum percentage. This process is supported by higher seeding densities or, for adherent cells, by switching to the next lower serum concentration only after the cells have attached. The vitality state plays a crucial role for a successful transfer of cells into serum-free culture. Therefore, cells must be harvested during the logarithmic growth phase. Based on our experience, cultivation starting from the stationary phase has significantly lower success rates.

For adherent cells, it must be ensured that after potential detachment with trypsin, the enzyme is removed by thorough washing or inhibited by a trypsin inhibitor, as the neutralizing effect present in serum is absent. For very sensitive cells, it may also be useful not only to reduce the serum content but also to slowly dilute the previously used medium with Panserin. Panserin was designed to achieve cell growth without serum. Therefore, the all-round version (Panserin 401) does not contain any additional growth factors. Investigations into the effectiveness of added growth factors thus yield clearer results. For cell lines requiring specific growth factors, these should continue to be added at the usual concentration.