Variable Responsiveness of Rat Tracheal Epithelial Cells to Bovine Serum Albumin in Serum-Free Culture

• Published in: In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology Vol. 25; no. 11; pp. 1046 - 1050
• Main Author: Thomassen, David G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Largo, MD Tissue Culture Association, Inc 01-11-1989; Society for In Vitro Biology
• Subjects: Animal cells; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Cell culture techniques; Cell cultures. Hybridization. Fusion; Cell Division - drug effects; Cell growth; Cells, Cultured; Cholera; Cholera Toxin - analysis; Cholera Toxin - pharmacology; Culture Media - analysis; Culture Media - pharmacology; Cultured cells; Epithelial Cells; Epithelium - drug effects; Epithelium - physiology; Establishment of new cell lines, improvement of cultural methods, mass cultures; Eukaryotic cell cultures; Fatty acids; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Globulins; Male; Methods. Procedures. Technologies; Molecular and cellular biology; Rats; Rats, Inbred F344; Serum Albumin, Bovine - analysis; Serum Albumin, Bovine - pharmacology; Serum albumins; Stem Cells - drug effects; Toxins; Trachea - cytology; Trachea - drug effects; Trachea - physiology; Ungulates; Cell culture; Serum free medium; Bovine; Rat; Rodentia; Serum albumin; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Animal; Epithelial cell; Artiodactyla; Biological effect; Trachea; Ungulata; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0883-8364; 2327-431X; 1475-2689
• DOI: 10.1007/BF02624139

The colony-forming efficiency of rat tracheal epithelial (RTE) cells was determined in serum-free media containing different types of commercially available bovine serum albumin (BSA): crude fraction V, essentially globulin-free, essentially fatty-acid-free, and essentially globulin- and fatty-acid-free BSA. RTE cells exhibited a concentration-dependent increase in colony-forming efficiency in response to crude fraction V BSA. Similar results were obtained using essentially globulin-free BSA. However, deletion of cholera toxin from the medium resulted in a decrease in the colony-forming efficiency for cells plated in high concentrations (>2 mg/ml) of globulin-free, but not one type of fraction V, BSA. Essentially fatty-acid-free or essentially fatty-acid- and globulin-free BSA stimulated RTE cell colony formation at low concentrations (less than 2.5 to 5 mg BSA/ml) but resulted in concentration-dependent decreases in colony-forming efficiency at higher concentrations. The response of cells to these BSAs was not dependent on cholera toxin. Finally, commercially available fraction V BSA prepared by heat shock, dialysis, charcoal treatment, and deionization was stimulatory at low concentrations but inhibitory at high concentrations. These data suggest that impure preparations of BSA can, under different conditions, stimulate or inhibit cell proliferation and that the expression of these activities is affected by the method of BSA preparation, the concentration of BSA used, and, in some cases, by the presence or absence of cholera toxin.