Sera
Serum is the fraction of blood remaining after coagulation and centrifugation of the cellular parts. It is an extremely complex mixture of plasma proteins, growth factors, hormones etc. that makes it the commonly used supplement in cell culture. Components may vary according to origin, nutritive conditions and processing. Because of these natural variations, it is necessary to do batch testing.
The high quality of BIOCHROM AG sera is based on the careful selection of raw serum, an optimized filtration process and sterile bottling under GMP guidelines.
Growth support level of sera in cell and tissue culture is determined through extensive biological testing, including growth tests with a range of commonly used cell lines. All sera have to test negative for both mycoplasma and bacterial L-forms.
Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) and Newborn Calf Serum are examined to exclude viruses such as Bovine Virus Diarrhoea (BVD), Bovine Herpes Virus type 1 (BHV-1) and Parainfluenza Virus type 3 (PI3). Test results have to prove negative with respect to cytopathogenicity, haemadsorption, and immunperoxidase staining. FBS is screened also for antibodies against these virus types.
For FBS, an independent laboratory raises a range of physico-chemical data provided to customers together with the sample.
Please use our contact form to request an FBS sample:
Sample request FBS
Important Notes
STERILE FILTRATION
Like all liquid products (media, additives), animal sera are sterilized using the membrane filtration technique with pore size <0.2 µm for sera in general, media and additives. For FBS, a filter pore size with 0.1 µm is used as standard.
STERILITY CONTROL
Aliquots of each lot are inoculated into tryptone soya broth and thioglycollate. The full sterility control procedure routinely takes 14 days.
All products of animal source like serum or trypsin are screened through standard procedures for mycoplasma contamination.
STORAGE
Due to their sensitivity against enzymatic decomposition, animal sera have to be stored at temperatures -20°C.
All data prove excellent stability, and performance of the sera for 36, for FBS even for 60 months.
FREEZING AND THAWING
To prevent formation of high salt concentrations, the thawing procedure should be kept short. We recommend to warm up the bottle for about half an hour at room temperature (until a liquid film has formed), then put it into the water bath.
Serum should be frozen quickly. A pre-cooling at +2 - +8°C is recommended. Frequent freezing and thawing cycles have to be avoided: preferably aliquote after first thawing.
DISPATCH, RESERVATION AND TESTING
Samples are available for all sera, FBS in particular, free of charge. To order test samples, please fill in the form (see above), since it contains all specifications required. Your reservation will be kept for the testing period.
Shipment of sera is made at - 20°C on dry ice.