Disadvantages of Serum in the Culture Medium, Epidermal Keratinocytes, Cytotoxic Constituents, Polyamine Oxidase, Spermidine

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	Disadvantages of Serum in the Culture Medium 1. Serum may inhibit growth of some cell types, e.g., epidermal keratinocytes. 2. Serum may contain some cytotoxic or potentially cytotoxic constituents. For example, foetal calf serum contains the enzyme polyamine oxidase, which converts polyamines like spermidine and spermine (secreted by fast growing cells) into cytotoxic polyaminoaldehyde.
3. There is a large variation in serum quality from one batch to another; this requires costly and time consuming testing every time a new batch has to be used. 4. Some growth factors may be inadequate for specific cell types and may need supplementation. 5. It interferes with downstream processing when cell cultures are used for production of biochemicals. 6. The supply of serum is always lower than its demand.