The Effect of Serum Concentrations of the Culture Media on the in vitro Secretion of Free beta-subunit of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin by Ovarian Cancer Cells

Koh, Min Whan; Kim, Mi Sook

Abstract

Cell growth rate and the secretion of ectopin hormones such as human chorionic gonadotropin(hCG), free beta-subunit and beta core fragment of hCG, were measured in the culture media with various serum concentrations from ovarian carcinoma cell lines, Bixler and Bix2NMB. The concentrations of fetal bovine serum contained in the culture media that showed the most active cell growth and hormone secretion were investigated to decide the best optimal serum concentration as one of the appropriate culture conditions in the experiment using cell culture. Ovarian concer cells were not able to proliferate in the media without serum. Cells proliferated more actively in higher concentration of serum. They secreted more hormone according to the increment of confluency as long as they secreted hormone. These findings suggest that serum is essential for surviving and cellular activity of cancer cells. The selection of the optimal serum concentration of culture media is very important to get appropriate data from the experiments which use cell culture technique. It is considered that we must have the knowledge on the most efficient concentration of serum in the culture media or on the exact percentage of serum in the media that matched to that of in vivo.