The potential of silk sericin protein as a serum substitute or an additive in cell culture and cryopreservation

• Published in: Amino acids Vol. 49; no. 6; pp. 1029 - 1039
• Main Authors: Cao, Ting-Ting, Zhang, Yu-Qing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vienna Springer Vienna 01.06.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Analytical Chemistry; Animals; Biochemical Engineering; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Blood Substitutes - chemistry; Blood Substitutes - pharmacology; Cell culture; Cell Culture Techniques - methods; Cryopreservation; Cryopreservation - methods; Culture media; Dimethyl sulfoxide; fetal bovine serum; Humans; hydrophilicity; Life Sciences; Minireview Article; Neurobiology; Proteomics; Safety; sericin; Sericins - chemistry; Sericins - pharmacology; Silk; Substitutes; therapeutics; Cell culture; Sericin; Serum; Cryopreservation; Recovery
• ISSN: 0939-4451; 1438-2199; 1438-2199
• DOI: 10.1007/s00726-017-2396-3

Cell culture and cryopreservation are necessary for clinical therapy and cells storage. The addition of 10% (v/v) foetal bovine serum (FBS) to basal culture media has been common practice and is one of the most widely used methods. FBS media added with 10% DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) have also been used for cryopreservation cells. Ideally, FBS should be avoided because of high cost and bio-safety. Silk sericin has been used as a serum substitute and an additive due to its good hydrophilicity and biological safety. This article summarizes a few details about the processing of sericin and its application as a serum substitute or an additive for cell culture and cryopreservation media. Sericin can be a potential novel serum substitute or an additive for cell culture and cryopreservation media.