Fetal Bovine Serum, ultra-low IgG, NZ origin

1. Heating inactivates complement. Active complement can participate in cytolytic events, contract smooth muscle, release histamine from mast cells and platelets, and activate lymphocytic and macrophage cells. Applications where heat-inactivated serum is recommended include immunological studies and culturing of embryonic stem cells (ESCs), insect cells, and smooth muscle cells.
2. Heat inactivation helps to achieve bottle-to-bottle and lot-to-lot stability by neutralizing many factors that can vary largely from lot to lot.
3. There aren't necessarily disadvantages to heat inactivation of FBS, but there is some evidence that suggests there may be no added benefit to it unless you are carrying out immune studies.

Note: Heat inactivation is performed in a 56 degrees C water bath for 30 min with swirling every 10 min or so for heat distribution and to lower the degree of protein aggregation/flocculant precipitation. Note: If the time or temperature is exceeded, the serum may thicken to a gel. If this occurs, the serum is no longer usable. Unnecessary heat inactivation can take up time and potentially lead to wasted reagents if a mistake is made during the protocol¹.

1. Pellerin, et al., Bioengineering, published in 2021.

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