Fetal Bovine Serum

Animal serum is commonly used to supplement basal media formulations for the optimal growth of many cell types in vitro.

Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) is the most common serum used to supplement cell culture media due to its high nutritional content. Although it is relatively low in protein, FBS is effective in promoting and sustaining growth of vertebrate mammalian and insect cells.

IgG is the most common immunoglobulin present in FBS. Elevated levels of IgG may cause problems within certain recombinant protein or monoclonal antibody purification processes. For applications where IgG may interfere or cause issues, we have depleted IgG levels in this fetal bovine serum by sequential chromatography down to a level of < 5 ug/mL, while maintaining performance equivalent to regular FBS.

Packaged in sterilized, graduated plastic bottles and sealed with a tamper indicator. Bottles are immediately frozen and stored at -10 to -40 C.

The fetal blood is aseptically collected and allowed to clot under controlled conditions. After centrifugation, the raw (unfiltered) serum is decanted from the clot, pooled and immediately frozen.

Frozen raw serum is thawed under controlled conditions and then processed through a series of membrane filters in descending pore size. FBS is filtered through three 0.1 μm filters before packaging.

Endotoxin and hemoglobin tested