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Sera
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Information |
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SERUM
Serum is the fraction of blood remaining after coagulation and
centrifugation of the cellular parts. It is an extremely complex
mixture of plasma proteins, growth factors, hormones etc. that makes
it the commonly used supplement in cell culture. Components may vary
according to origin, nutritive conditions and processing. Because of
these natural variations, it is necessary to do batch testing.
The high quality of BIOCHROM sera is based on the careful selection
of raw serum, an optimized filtration process and sterile bottling
under GMP guidelines.
Growth support level of sera in cell and tissue culture is
determined through extensive biological testing, including growth
tests with a range of commonly used cell lines. All sera have to
test negative for both mycoplasma and bacterial L-forms.
Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) and Newborn Calf Serum are examined to
exclude viruses such as Bovine Virus Diarrhoea (BVD), Bovine Herpes
Virus type 1 (BHV-1) and Parainfluenza Virus type 3 (PI3). Test
results have to prove negative with respect to cytopathogenicity,
haemadsorption, and immunperoxidase staining. FBS is screened also
for antibodies against these virus types.
For FBS, an independent laboratory raises a range of
physico-chemical data provided to customers together with the
sample.
STERILE FILTRATION
Like all liquid products (media, additives), animal sera are
sterilized using the membrane filtration technique with pore size <
0.2 µm for sera in general, media and additives. For FBS, a filter
pore size of 0.01 µm is used.
STERILITY CONTROL
Aliquots of each lot are inoculated into tryptone soya broth,
thioglycollate and sabouraud broth. The full steriliy control
procedure routinely takes 14 days. All products of animal source
like serum or trypsin, are screened through standard procedures for
mycoplasma contamination, and bacterial L-forms.
STORAGE
Due to their sensitivity against enzymatic decomposition, animal
sera have to be stored at temperatures < -20°C. All data prove
excellent stability and performance of the sera for at least 36, for
FBS even 60 months.
SAMPLING AND SHIPMENT
Samples are available for all sera, FBS in particular,
free-of-charge. To order test samples, please use our form Sample
Order FBS (see above), since it contains all specifications required
by us.Your reservation will be kept for the testing period. Shipment
of sera is made at -20°C on dry ice.
THAWING AND FREEZING OF SERA
To prevent formation of high salt concentrations, the thawing
procedure should be kept short. We recommend to warm up the bottle
for about half an hour at room temperature (until a liquid film has
formed), then putting it into the water bath.
The bottles should be immersed in the water bath up to the serum
level in the bottle. During warming, the content should be mixed by
rotating slowly (do not shake to prevent formation of foam).
Serum should be frozen quickly. A pre-cooling at +2 - +8°C is
recommended. Frequent freezing and thawing cycles have to be avoided:
preferably aliquote after first thawing.
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Sera, others
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On request, inactivated (+56°C, 30 min) or dialyzed (exclusion
limit 10kDalton) sera are available.
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Please enquire for prices and terms.
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+32 (0) 16
58 90 45 
+32 (0) 16
50 90 45
