Abstract
ALTHOUGH serum proteins are almost universally used to stimulate the growth of mammalian cells in axenic culture, the nature of the active entity is unknown. Previous work from this laboratory1 has shown that lipids extracted from serum with ether are toxic to cultured cells. It therefore seemed reasonable that the removal of toxic materials would produce serum of greater growth stimulatory activity. This was found not to be so; the resulting serum was either toxic or inert to cultured cells. The reason for this may have been that ether extraction was too vigorous a treatment for the retention of growth stimulatory activity by serum proteins. A milder method would be the use of charcoal which was shown by Chen2 to remove fatty acids from serum albumin.
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TRITSCH, G., BELL, J. & GRAHL-NIELSEN, G. Control of Growth of Axenic Cultures of Mammalian Cells by Serum Lipids. Nature 219, 300 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1038/219300a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/219300a0
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