The Cell Environment (including types of culture medium)

In general terms cultured cells require a sterile environment and a supply of nutrients for growth. In addition the culture environment should be stable in terms of pH and temperature.

Over the last thirty years various defined basal media types have been developed and are now available commercially.

Originally balanced salt solutions were used to maintain contractility of mammalian heart tissue and Tyrode’s salt solution (Prod. No. T2397) was designed for use in work with primary mammalian cells. These have since been modified and enriched with amino acids, vitamins, fatty acids and lipids.

Consequently media suitable for supporting the growth of a wide range of cell types are now available. The precise media formulations have often been derived by optimizing the concentrations of every constituent. Examples of the different media and their uses are given in the table below (Table 2).

Table 1: Different types of culture medium and their uses

Media type Examples Uses

PBS, Hanks BSS, Earles salts

Balanced salt solutions DPBS (Prod. No. D8537 / D8662) Form the basis of many complex media HBSS (Prod. No. H9269 / H9394)

EBSS (Prod. No. E2888)

Basal media MEM (Prod. No. M2279) Primary and diploid cultures

DMEM (Prod. No. D5671) Modification of MEM containing increased level of amino acids and vitamins. Supports a wide range of cell types including hybridomas

GMEM (Prod. No. G5154) Glasgows modified MEM was defined for BHK-21 cells

Complex media RPMI 1640 (Prod. No. R0883) Originally derived for human leukaemic cells. It supports a wide range of mammalian cells including hybridomas

Iscoves DMEM (Prod. No. 13390) Further enriched modification of DMEM which supports high density growth

Leibovitz L-15(Prod. No. L5520, liquid) Designed for CO2 free environments

TC 100 (Prod. No. T3160)

Grace's Insect Medium

(Prod. No. G8142)

Schneider's Insect Medium (Prod. No. S0146) Designed for culturing insect cells

Serum Free Media CHO (Prod. No. C5467) For use in serum free applications. Ham F10 and derivatives

Ham F12 (Prod. No. N4888)

DMEM/F12 (Prod. No. D8062) NOTE: These media must be supplemented with other factors such as insulin, transferrin and epidermal growth factor. These media are usually HEPES buffered

Insect cells Sf-900 II SFM,

SF Insect-Medium-2 (Prod. No. S3902) Specifically designed for use with Sf9 insect cells