Horse Serum for Cell Culture

• Support of in vitro antibody response to SRBC in place of FBS [1]
• Production of C2 heterokaryons [2]
• Isolation and culture of primary neural cells [3]
• Promotion of myogenic differentiation [4]
• Supplement in mycoplasma broths and agars [5]

In addition to horse serum as a lower cost alternative to FBS, Thermo Fisher Scientific also offers normal horse serum that can be used as a blocker solution in immunoassays.

Gibco horse serum is available in both heat-inactivated and non-heat-inactivated formats.

Horse serum can be used as a viable FBS alternative in some cell culture applications. One key horse serum benefit compared to FBS is its lower cost. However, horse serum composition does differ from FBS composition, with horse serum tending to exhibit lower growth factor and higher immunoglobulin levels than FBS [6]. Therefore, due to differences in FBS and horse serum, your specific experiment and needs should be carefully considered when deciding whether to use horse serum.

Collected from donor herds in New Zealand, each lot of horse serum is tested for its ability to support the growth of Sp2/O-Ag14 (murine myeloma) cells in control medium containing the test lot of serum. Results are compared to those obtained using control growth medium with a previously characterized reference serum. In addition, Gibco horse serum is EIA (equine infectious anemia) tested.

1. Levy EM. (1980) The ability of horse serum to support an in vitro antibody response. J Immunol Methods 36(2):181–183. 
2. Production of Heterokaryons. Stanford University Protocols.
3. Patel MR, Weaver AM. (2021) Astrocyte-derived small extracellular vesicles promote synapse formation via fibulin-2-mediated TGF-β signaling. Cell Rep 34(10):108829. 
4. Sosa P, Alcalde-Estévez E, Asenjo-Bueno A, et al. (2021) Aging-related hyperphosphatemia impairs myogenic differentiation and enhances fibrosis in skeletal muscle. J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle 12(5):1266–1279. 
5. Ligasová A, Vydržalová M, Buriánová R, et al. (2019) Koberna K. A New Sensitive Method for the Detection of Mycoplasmas Using Fluorescence Microscopy. Cells 8(12):1510. 
6. Subbiahanadar Chelladurai K, Selvan Christyraj JD, Rajagopalan K, et al. (2021) Alternative to FBS in animal cell culture - An overview and future perspective. Heliyon 7(8):e07686.