Disadvantages of Serum Free Media, Reliable Serum Free, Biopolymers, Synthetic Polymers, Minimal Essential Medium, Dulbeccos Enriched Modification

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	Disadvantages of Serum Free Media 1. Most serum free media are specific to one cell type. Therefore, different media may be required for different cell lines. 2. Reliable serum free preparations, for most of the media formulations are not available commercially. This necessitates time consuming task of preparing the desired formulations in the laboratory. 3. A greater control of pH, temperature, etc. is necessary as compared to that with serum containing media.
4. Growth rate and the maximum cell density attained are lower than those with serum containing media. 5. Cells tend to become fragile during prolonged agitated cultures unless biopolymers or synthetic polymers are added. Several defined media have been evolved from the Eagle's minimal essential medium (MEM), e.g., Dulbecco's enriched modification (DME), Ham's F12, :,pMRL1O66, RPMIl640, McCoy's 5A and Iscove's modified Dulbecco’s' (IMDM); all are commercially available. Often a 1: 1 mixture of DME and F12 is used as a serum free formulation. If needed, purified proteins and/or hormones may be added to the medium.