In vitro study on Arthrospira (Spirulina) maxima extract as a fetal bovine serum-substituted HeLa cell culture medium

Abstract

The HeLa cell lines are widely important for the research area of cell biology, cancer, virus propagation, biosynthesis and anti-tumor mechanism research as a tumor model. For culturing these cells, fetal bovine serum (FBS) is generally used as a main serum supplement. However, there are several problems with the use of FBS such as high cost, unclear components, and unstable supply. In addition, ethical concerns were raised during the upstream process for manufacturing FBS though the serum is important in the field of worldwide cell industry. For this reason, searching for serum alternatives and development of serum-free media has been attracting global attention. In this study, the possibility of cell culture medium as FBS substitute using Spirulina maxima extract (SE) was validated. To evaluate the possibility of FBS alternatives using SE, we manufactured different serums of 4 groups such as [10% FBS], [5% FBS/5% SE], [3% FBS/7% SE], and [1% FBS/9% SE] according to the medium ratio of FBS to SE in HeLa cell line. Cell viability, morphology, protein expression pattern, cell cycle analysis, and apoptotic analysis were analyzed for identifying cell conditions affecting by concentrations of SE-based substitute medium. In the results, two groups were not showed significantly differences compared with control group of [10% FBS] in HeLa cell lines without the group of [1% FBS/9% SE]. From the results of this study, S. maxima extract could be an affordable solution for the FBS-alternated growth medium of the HeLa cell lines.