Best Practices for Media Selection for Mammalian Cells

Cell culture medium is a complex mixture of nutrients and growth factors that, along with the physical environment, can either help or destroy your experiment or production run. Nutritional requirements differ with different cell types and functions, as do optimal pH and osmolality. As cell growth proceeds, different cells will utilize amino acids and other components at different rates. By controlling for ammonia, free radicals, heavy metal toxicity, pH shifts, fluctuations in osmolality, nutrient depletion, and chemical and biological contaminants, you will optimize the chances of success. The contribution of each component of the medium is essential for the maintenance of the cell type of interest. While some cell types, such as established human cancer cell lines, may be quite able to tolerate a range of media and supplements, many normal cells and stems cells are not. Optimization of each component may be required to successfully maintain the latter cell types. The procedures for selecting and optimizing cell culture media and supplements are presented.