serum starvation - (Jun/08/2010 )

i want to test the effect of a natural compound on cell proliferation/apoptosis etc.
sometimes i read about serum starvation in this contex, while in other publications medium/10%FBS is used!!

i am a little confused about this.

i thought, that serum is starved, when you want to inhibit that the compound you are working with, is bound by serum proteins...

are there additional considerations why serum starvation should be performed, before the compound is added to the cells!


thanks for recommendations

moljul on Jun 8 2010, 11:16 AM said:

I have the same question. I am reading a paper on measuring the levels of mRNA in two different cells lines (one transfected with the vector control; the other with the oncogene of interest). Before they did RT-PCR to measure mRNA levels,they put the cells under serum starvation and then prepare total RNAs from them.

Why's that?

Not to sound pessimistic, but they probably do this to maximize differences in their results between transformed cells and non-transformed. Their vector alone cells will probably arrest in G1/S upon serum starvation, but oncogene expressing cells often continue cycling upon serum starvation. If they observe this phenomenon first, then they are guaranteed to have dramatic differences when doing RT-PCR comparisons. Then they can try to convince you that the mRNA differences they see explain their phenotype, when really these things are probably far downstream of the real mechanism. (OK, I was trying to sound pessimistic).