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non-heat inactivated FBS or heat inactivated FBS - (Jul/05/2006 )

What does that mean...non-heat inactivated FBS and heat inactivated FBS
thanks,

-liumaikuh-

You can heat inactivate your FBS/FCS by incubating it @56oC for 30 minutes. This used to be done in the old days to inactivate compliment and to kill mycoplasma's. But nowadays with filter technology you no longer have to do this unless you are specifically working with viruses that may be affected by compliment. Heating the seum will only have a dilerterious effect on the growth promoting proteins found in the FCS/FBS.
The companies that sell serum offer heat inactivated serum, dialysed serum or normal serum. Always batch test your serum so that you have a constant supply of the same batch. There are tremendous differences between batches and you will only be introducing error to your experimentation by using different batches. I always dialyse and heat inactivate ( where needed) the one batch of serum. Consistancy in experimentation is what we are all after and FCS/FBS is very very important.

-Rhombus-