serum deprivation of cell lines - (Nov/21/2011 )

I am stimulating RAW 264.7 macrophages with LPS and then assaying for TNF-a and IL-6. I am new to these types of experiments, so is use of serum free media necessary for this experiment or before the experiment?

I tried LPS on RAW264.7 for measurement of nitric oxide and I did not starve my cells and it worked fine. So I guess it depends on the purpose of serum starvation in your experiment?