Why starving cells before a tratment? - (Jun/13/2006 )

Hi, I´m pretty new in the use of cell cultures and I´m just starting to work with SHSY5Y. I have to make some treatments on these cells and I´m wondering if I have to starve the cells for a period before starting the treatment or not...I understood that in this way I´ll have all the cells in Go, is it important?
thanks for the help

hi cladadda ! cell culture medium contains FBS which inturn contains many growth factors. because of these factors and due to autocrine factors released by the cells under culture, cells will be in a state of continuous stimulation. this rerults in the activation of secondary messenger molecules in pulses. if you are studying some pathway and want to track the signaling pathway these continuous signals would interupt your study and mask the effects. hence it is necessary to stop these signals so that you can study your pathway of interest. serum deprivation is the method to stop all these signals. cells enter quiescent state (G0 state) due to serum deprivation where they rest and there is no/ minimum activity going inside the cell. but as soon as you give a stimulant they respond.
it is just preparing the cells to respond to a single subject. you are taking away all othere things.
hope you got the point.
all the best

Hi thanks a lot for your explanations!
so, for how long do you think I should starve my cells? 24h ? are not they gonna die?
thanks so much again
take care

hi cladadda ! serum deprivation is usually done for 16-18 Hrs and not more than that as apoptosis of the cell sets in thereafter. it also depends on the cell type. you can deprive your cells for 16 Hrs.
all the best

What should I do after the 16hrs stavation? Should I add cytokine into a normal media to test cell response? If I use normal media containing FCS, is it possible that any different behaviour of the cells is due to the FCS not my cytokine? But if I add cytokine to serum deprived media, is the cell still gonna alive for a couple of days?

hi Ohmyhead! you can add cytokines along with complete media. serum deprivation for longer times initiates apoptosis in the cell.