SH-SY5Y Differentiation protocols...questions! - (Nov/14/2011 )

Hi all,

I'm fairly new to cell culture and work with SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. I need to differentiate them, and plan on using a final concentration of 10 uM Retinoic Acid. However, I can't seem to find a consensus in the literature about what media to differentiate in. I normally grow them in 1:1 DMEM:Ham's F12 + 10% FBS and Antibiotics. I have heard mostly 2 schools of thought, using complete medium + RA or using medium with 1% FBS + RA.

What would you suggest? Are there pros/cons to each? Will moving my cells from 10% FBS to 1% shock them?

Thank you!

I think we used neurobasal with B-27 supplement for media and tried out different conc. of RA