Don't Let FBS Disrupt Your Cell Culture Media Nutrient Analysis

Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM), Iscove’s Modified Dulbecco’s Medium (IMDM), and Roswell Park Memorial Institute media (RPMI) are three of the most common cell media formulations used in cell culture processes. For certain types of cell cultures and processes (e.g., stem cells, T and B cells, fibroblasts, hybridomas, HEK293, leukemia cells, plant cells, insect cells, etc.), these basal media are usually supplemented with fetal bovine serum (FBS) at 10% v/v. However, FBS supplemented media is challenging to assay with traditional chromatographic approaches. The serum proteins can interfere with the chromatography. Sample preparation with protein precipitation may interfere with media component recoveries resulting in biased results of fresh or spent media analysis.

We demonstrated how by using the Rebel, one can routinely monitor these slight changes of media components as the serum is added to the basal media formulations. This practice can support reproducible culture processes and media preparations for a variety of cell lines.