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Fetal Bovine Serum : Is it time to find a new growth supplement?

Shannon Meirzon Pyxis Communications October 6, 2022

Fetal bovine serum, or FBS, has been a staple in cell culture practices for decades. When it was first used in the late 1950s, it was lauded for its ability to promote cell growth because of its high levels of amino acids, lipids, hormones, and inorganic salts.

Now, FBS is one of the most common growth supplements used in cell cultures and the FBS market is expected to hit $1.4 billion by 2030.

However, multiple ethical issues and market challenges surround its use and are beginning to chip into profits. The annual supply of FBS has been declining because of changing policies and environmental factors, making many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies wonder if fetal bovine serum is necessary for cell culture. Here’s a rundown of the issues around FBS, why companies are looking for other options, and some alternative products to consider.

 

Controversies Around Fetal Bovine Serum

Alternatives to fetal bovine serum have become increasingly popular as issues around FBS and its collection process have hit headlines in the last 15 years. It’s essential to understand these controversies in order to identify successful alternatives and solve these problems. Some of the major issues around FBS include:

  • Ethical concerns: Fetal bovine serum is collected from pregnant cows when they are slaughtered. In addition to concerns over animal rights of cows being slaughtered, the calves may experience hypoxia and heart puncture during the process.

  • Contamination risks: Because FBS is derived from live animals, any byproducts have the potential to be contaminated. FBS may include contaminants such as prion proteins, endotoxins, microbes, viruses, immunoglobulin, mycoplasma, and other zoonoses. These contaminants can pass diseases on from the original host, as well as cause cell therapy rejection and infections in the recipients.

  • Product variation: Geographical factors, brand differences, and seasonal variations can affect the quality and composition of FBS. This product variation can affect the reproducibility of experiments.

  • Market risks: Seasonal calf availability and a loosely regulated market sometimes lead to unpredictable shortages of FBS. This has also contributed to the price of FBS increasing more than 300% in the space of a few years.

 

Barriers to Using FBS Alternatives

If fetal bovine serum has so many issues, why aren’t more companies abandoning it as a staple of their production lifecycle? There are two main barriers companies continue to face if they wish to move away from FBS:

  • Cost: Recombinant alternatives are often much more expensive than FBS. Mitogenic protein growth factors, which are essential to growth mediums, account for around 95% of the total cost of creating serum-free media, making it cost-prohibitive for many manufacturers.

  • Lack of universal application: Fetal bovine serum is commonly used because it works well for many types of cells. FBS is rich in growth factors and has essential components for cell attachment, proliferation, and maintenance. Although serum-free media variations can now be used to culture 260 unique cell types, no single formula has been able to replace FBS as a culture for all possible cell types.

 

Advantages of Using Alternatives to FBS

Yet, alternatives to FBS can offer several benefits to companies willing to invest in recombinant products:

  • Decreased environmental impact: Livestock contribute an astonishing 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. If fewer cattle are needed to collect FBS, this may benefit the environment.

  • Better batch-to-batch consistency: When recombinant FBS alternatives are created in a lab environment, they are more likely to be consistent from batch to batch. Chemically defined serum-free media is more compatible with controlled manufacturing processes and can offer improved reliability in cell culture performance.

  • Improved sustainability and independence: Because recombinant alternatives can be created in a lab, they are independent of issues facing the meat industry, creating market stability and stable product supply. Recombinant products can be produced on a large scale without needing constant sourcing from live animals. Lab-based creations also do not require the resources—such as water, food, and space—that it otherwise would have taken to create and raise animals.

Icons for attributes of recombinant FBS
 

Recombinant, Animal-free Alternative Products

Given the advantages of FBS-free products, it’s not surprising many companies are searching for new options. If you’re looking for alternatives to bovine fetal serum, here are some suggestions to get you started. Each of these products is animal-free and recombinant.

  • Fisher Sci AF ITSE: Optimize cell growth with this animal-free, recombinant, blood-free cell culture media supplement.

  • InVitria Cellastim: This product is a recombinant human serum albumin. Supplied as a lyophilized powder, Cellastim is a blood-free product designed to enhance performance in animal-free culture media. Its lipid profile makes it a great choice for stem, primary and production cell types.

  • Millipore Sigma CellPrime® rAlbumin: Expressed in Pichia pastoris, this recombinant human albumin is a media manufacturing supplement that is safe and suitable as a non-animal origin (NAO) product.

  • Sheffield rAlbumin ACF: Because it’s extracted from and produced in plant tissues, this product is a good choice as an animal component free (ACF) recombinant form of human serum albumin.

 

Conclusion

Fetal bovine serum has been a mainstay in cell culture for many years, but changing policies and environmental factors are making the annual supply of FBS scarce. As a result, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are looking for other options to consider for their cell culture needs. Alternative products are available, and each has its own benefits and drawbacks. It is important to weigh all the options before making a decision about which product to use in your next experiment.


Have you considered using recombinant, animal-free alternatives to FBS? Let us know in the comments!


 
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InCell Culture Tips, Supply Chain Tips TagsTissue Culture
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