3 - Cell culture media

Summary

Choice of a suitable culture medium, appropriate for the type of cell it is intended to cultivate, is very important. For established cell lines, the medium used will have been pre-determined and it is then usually only a question of continuing with the same medium, serum and culture conditions. Over the history of cell culture, a large number of different types of medium and balanced salt solutions has been formulated and published but even today the vast majority of cells are cultivated in one of seven or eight different media. The formulations for six of the more popular ones are given in Table 3.1 and discussed in this chapter.

Many of the other formulations were developed specifically for the cultivation of cells with more specialized nutritional requirements, and most commercial suppliers offer a selection of both types of medium. For primary cell cultures, the type of medium used is the choice of the researcher. More often than not, an established cell line can be adapted to grow in an alternative medium should the need arise but, when doing so, cultures should always be run in parallel in order to monitor the comparison until adaption has been assessed to have fully occurred.

Sources

How the researcher obtains their medium will usually depend on the type of organization in which they carry out their research. Centralized in-house production or a Stores stock system will usually mean ready access to medium but, in all other cases, the medium will either have to be purchased directly from a commercial supplier or made in the laboratory.