Other Bovine Sera: Newborn Calf Serum, Bovine Calf Serum, and Adult Bovine Serum

Bovine serum is categorized based on the age of the animal from which it is collected. The animal’s age can impact the composition of the serum, making age an important consideration when selecting serum for your cell culture experiments.

Thermo Fisher Scientific offers a range of bovine sera products, including newborn calf, bovine calf, and adult serum, most of which are processed and manufactured in New Zealand. Bovine serum is also available in heat-inactivated and non-heat inactivated formats.

Compared to bovine calf serum and newborn calf serum, fetal bovine serum (FBS) tends to be lower in antibodies and richer in growth factors, making FBS the most common choice for cell culture by scientists worldwide [1]. Differences in composition between FBS and calf sera should be carefully considered when determining what is best for your cell culture.

Despite their differences from FBS, other forms of bovine sera can serve as viable alternatives for cell culture, providing the appropriate factors for cell growth and viability. If considering changing the serum in your cell culture medium, always test your cell line for compatibility [1].

Comparisons of cell line growth, viability, and behavior using FBS, donor bovine serum (DBS), and newborn bovine calf serum (NBCS) indicate that, in some cell lines, DBS and NBCS are comparable to FBS in performance. However, in other instances, FBS may be the better choice.

Performance of FBS was considered the highest (denoted by ****). Performance of all other sera as compared to FBS was denoted accordingly. NA indicates that the assay was not performed.

Bovine calf serum has been used as:

• a viable alternative to fetal bovine serum (FBS) in the growth promotion and cloning efficiency of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells used in the HGPRT mutation assay [4]
• a supplement in the cultivation of Plasmodium Falciparum: neopeptone and proteose-peptone no.3 added together with calf serum gave parasite growth rates comparable to, or surpassing, those obtained with human serum [5]

Cited uses of adult bovine serum include:

• the growth of G. intestinalis trophozoites for studies of this intestinal parasite [6]
• the culture of mouse mammary epithelial cells for studies of prolonged TGFβ exposure on cancer development [7]

To help ensure quality, each lot of Gibco sera undergoes testing for its ability to support the growth of VERO cells over three subcultures. At each passage, the cells are subcultured to the original cell-inoculation density. Results are compared to those obtained using control growth medium with a previously characterized reference serum.

1. Fang CY, Wu CC, Fang CL, et al. (2017) Long-term growth comparison studies of FBS and FBS alternatives in six head and neck cell lines. PLoS One 12(6):e0178960. 
2. Zainal Ariffin SH, Mohamed Rozali NA, Megat Abdul Wahab R, et al. (2016) Analyses of basal media and serum for in vitro expansion of suspension peripheral blood mononucleated stem cell. Cytotechnology 68(4):675–686. 
3. Nanda PK, Swain P, Nayak SK, et al. (2009) Goat serum as an alternative to establish cell culture from Indian major carp, Cirrhinus mrigala. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Anim 45(3–4):148–151. 
4. Oberly J, Rexroat M, Richardson R. (1990) Iron-supplemented bovine serum as an alternative to fetal bovine serum in the CHO/HGPRT mutation assay. Mutat Res 244(2):105–109. 
5. Ifediba T. Vanderberg J. (1980) Peptones and Calf Serum as a Replacement for Human Serum in the Cultivation of Plasmodium falciparum. J Parasitol 66(2):236–239. 
6. Einarsson E, Troell K, Hoeppner MP, et al. (2016) Coordinated Changes in Gene Expression Throughout Encystation of Giardia intestinalis. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 10(3):e0004571. 
7. Dunphy KA, Seo JH, Kim DJ, et al. (2013) Oncogenic transformation of mammary epithelial cells by transforming growth factor beta independent of mammary stem cell regulation. Cancer Cell Int 13:74.