Question about growth media for A20 Cell Line - (Jul/10/2014 )

Hello fellow scientists,

I have a query about the A20 cell line. According to ATCC recommendation, they say to add many different reagents to RPMI 1640, like 1 mM NaPyr, 10 mM HEPES, 0.05 mM B-mercaptoethanol, and increase glucose concentration to 4500 mg/L. Is this necessary? Is there anyone who has grown this cell line have recommendations as to what growth media and additives to use?

Thank you.

For reference: http://www.atcc.org/Products/All/TIB-208.aspx#culturemethod

If you purchased the cells from ATCC and they perscribe this medium for this particular cell line, I'd suggest you follow it, at least for the first few passages. Culture as many cells as you can, freeze enough stock vials and then you can try splitting your cultures into flasks that contain different kinds of media, to see how the cells react. This way you'll have enough back-up material in case your cells all die because of the medium. Keep in mind that, although the cells may appear fine at first, they can start to show unusual behaviour if the medium isn't suited.