Defined media reveals the essential role of lipid scavenging to support cancer cell proliferation.

ABSTRACT: Fetal bovine serum (FBS) is a nearly ubiquitous, yet undefined additive in mammalian cell culture media whose functional contributions to promoting cell proliferation remain poorly understood. Efforts to replace serum supplementation in culture media have been hindered by an incomplete understanding of the environmental requirements fulfilled by FBS in culture. Here, we use a combination of live-cell imaging and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to elucidate the role of serum in supporting proliferation. We show that serum provides consumed factors that enable proliferation and demonstrate that the serum metal and lipid components are crucial to sustaining proliferation in culture. Importantly, despite access to a wide range of lipid classes, albumin-bound lipids are the primary spec

SUBMITTER: Newsom OJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11870423 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature