help: Difference b/w FBS and FCS? - (Jun/19/2007 )

I'm trying to decide which one to use for culturing some fibroblasts. I'd like to choose something with less fluorescent components and I was wondering if someone could help? much thanks in advance.

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Hi Ender,

FBS is "fetal bovine serum", FCS is "fetal calf serum".

The only differences I know are found among the different suppliers - but they should be quite marginal.

Greetings,
Chakchel

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Its the same thing... Just don´t confuse it with NCS (Newborn Calf Serum) that is something different.

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I agree with you that FBS/FCS are the same. BUT THERE ARE MAJOR DIFFERENCES YOU SHOULD BE AWARE OF.

Price is one. British FCS is the cheapest to buy and the worst in quality. New Zealand sourced serum is the best and obviously the most expensive i.e. NZ £250/500ml.........British £30/500ml.


Each batch of serum is different therefore you must do batch testing. This ensures that you do not get variabilty between experiments. We test the following cellular parameters for our serum batch testing:
Viability.
Growth.
iNOS induction
Oxygen consumption
Cytochrome C content in viable cells
Oxidation/Reduction states of enzymes in the mitochondrial transport chain.
cGMP concentration within smooth muscle cells
Sodium Channel expression in transfected CHO cells.

The new serum is batch tested so that for example, the oxygen consumption rate /million cells today is the same as it was 2 years ago with the original batch.


The serum has many tests done on it. For our particular work with Nitric Oxide Synthase, the ENDOTOXIN level within the serum is VERY VERY important, and varies between batches. We only go for serum that is below 0.1EU/ml.

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