Comparing the effects of fetal bovine and human sera on isolation, expansion and osteogenic differentiation of adipose-derived stem cells

Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) have been investigated as a promising cell source for therapeutic and engineering applications. Common proliferation protocols use fetal bovine serum (FBS) as a growth factor which is potentially a source of pathogens, and contains animal antigens that can cause an allergic reaction after transplantation in the recipient, and regarding immunity, human serum (HS) could be a suitable alternative to it. The aim of this study is to compare the culture medium enriched with FBS or HS as supplements in the proliferation and differentiation of ADSCs.
Human serum was extracted from 90 ml venous blood of a healthy person, taken in respective intervals. The ADSCs were isolated according to the protocol from adipose tissue after lipolysis operation and cultured by mediums enriched with FBS or HS. Expression of the surface markers of ADSCs was investigated by flow cytometry. Osteogenic differentiation was evaluated by Alizarin Red staining method.
The analysis of cell growth showed that the isolation and proliferation of ADSCs in both media (HS & FBS) were similar, but there was a significant difference in case of differentiation in the HS medium.
This study showed that FBS could be replaced by HS in case of isolation, proliferation and differentiation of stem cells studies as supplement. Furthermore, our data suggest a fast and safe proliferation protocol by using human serum in the stem cells culture and cell-based therapies.