Paula, A. C., Martins, T. M., Zonari, A., Frade, S. P., Angelo, P. C., Gomes, D. A., & Goes, A. M. (2015). Human adipose tissue-derived stem cells cultured in xeno-free culture condition enhance c-MYC expression increasing proliferation but bypassing spontaneous cell transformation. Stem cell research & therapy, 6(1), 76.
DOI: 10.1186/s13287-015-0030-4.

In this study, hASCs were expanded in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented with pooled allogeneic human serum or fetal bovine serum to enable a side-by-side comparison. The hASCs expanded in medium with pooled allogeneic human serum did not show remarkable differences in morphology, viability, differentiation capacity or immunophenotype. The main difference observed was a significantly higher proliferative effect on hASCs cultured in pooled allogeneic human serum. There was no significant difference in C-FOS expression; however, C-MYC protein expression was enhanced in pooled allogeneic human serum cultures compared to fetal bovine serum cultures. No difference was observed in MYC and TERT mRNA levels. Moreover, the hASCs presented normal karyotype undergoing senescence, and did not form in vivo tumors, eliminating the possibility that spontaneous immortalization of hASCs had occurred with pooled allogeneic human serum. This complete characterization of hASCs cultivated in pooled allogeneic human serum, a suitable xeno-free approach, shows that pooled allogeneic human serum provides a high proliferation rate, which can be attributed for the first time to C-MYC protein expression, and showed cell stability for safe clinical applications in compliance with good manufacturing practice.

The formulation of the culture media is listed in the Materials and Methods, under the heading; Culture media.