What Makes Serum So Important?

Serum provides essential growth factors, proteins, hormones and lipids.
However, serum is also one of the least standardized components in cell culture workflows.

But reproducibility depends on:

• species origin

• endotoxin levels

• batch variability

• filtration grade

• supplements or treatments (heat-inactivated, gamma-irradiated, IgG stripped)

Using the right serum — and validating it — determines whether your experiment will scale, publish, or fail.

Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS): Strengths & Limitations

Advantages of FBS

• High growth factor content

• Low antibody concentration

• Well-established across thousands of cell lines

• Works universally for Vero, CHO, BHK, Sf9, S2, stem cells and more

• Widely used in adeno, AAV, lentiviral and recombinant protein workflows

Limitations

• High batch variability

• Xenogeneic components may alter immune responses

• Endotoxin levels differ significantly between vendors

• Regulatory risk for ATMP and diagnostic manufacturing

• Species mismatch for human-derived cell lines (e.g., HEK293)

Human Serum: The Human-Relevant Alternative

For many modern applications — especially diagnostics, immunology and viral vector production — Human Serum offers advantages that directly improve reproducibility:

Benefits

• Matches the species of human cell lines → increases physiological relevance

• Reduces xenogeneic artifacts in immune assays

• Ideal for HEK293, MRC-5, PBMCs, NK cells, T cells

• Improved consistency in antibody production & immunoassays

• Often more stable performance in AAV workflows

• Available as Type AB → no anti-A/anti-B antibodies

Considerations

• Less universal than FBS

• Protein composition differs from bovine serum

• Slightly higher cost

• Requires strict donor screening & documentation (CoA, CoO, viral screening)

Direct Comparison: FBS vs Human Serum

When Should You Choose Which Serum?

Choose FBS when you need:

• universal compatibility

• robust growth across many cell lines

• CHO or Vero-based virus production

• stem cell expansion

• early-stage R&D

Choose Human Serum when you need:

• physiologically relevant conditions

• HEK293-based vector production

• PBMC or immunology workflows

• diagnostic reproducibility

• reduced xenogeneic influence

• translational research

How SeamlessBio Ensures Reproducible Serum Supply

We provide:

✔ FBS (South America, Australia, US origin)
✔ Ultra Low Endotoxin FBS (<5 EU/mL)
✔ Human Serum Type AB (EU / US origin)
✔ Off-the-clot, mixed gender, male AB
✔ Heat-inactivated, gamma-irradiated & IgG-stripped options
✔ Free batch testing (no pre-payment)
✔ Cold-chain EU logistics
✔ Full documentation (CoA, CoO, MSDS)

Ready to Choose the Right Serum?