Fetal bovine serum (FBS) has been used as a universal supplement in cell culture for more than six decades. This includes the investigation of lipid and lipid mediator formation and biology. Little is known about the (polyunsaturated) fatty acid composition and their oxidation products in FBS. Therefore, we analyzed six different FBS purchased from three different companies regarding their fatty acid and oxylipin concentrations. We found pronounced differences in the fatty acid concentrations. Even two batches of “standardized” FBS batches from one company showed drastic differences (e.g., for eicosapentaenoic acid 5 ± 1 μM vs. 11 ± 1 μM). Oxylipin concentrations also markedly differ between the FBS lots. The highest differences were found for 12-lipoxygenase products (e.g., 12-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid free 21–87 nM and total 58–108 nM), probably due to inconsistent serum generation procedures. Our results indicate that for cell culture studies dealing with lipid metabolism, researchers should carefully characterize their used FBS to ensure reliability and reproducibility of study outcomes.

中文翻译：

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不同胎牛血清之间的脂肪酸和羟脂浓度显着不同：注意事项

六年来，胎牛血清 (FBS) 已被用作细胞培养中的通用补充剂。这包括研究脂质和脂质介质的形成和生物学。关于 FBS 中的（多不饱和）脂肪酸组成及其氧化产物知之甚少。因此，我们分析了从三个不同公司购买的六种不同 FBS 的脂肪酸和氧化脂浓度。我们发现脂肪酸浓度存在显着差异。甚至来自一家公司的两批“标准化”FBS 批次也显示出巨大差异（例如，二十碳五烯酸 5 ± 1 μM 与 11 ± 1 μM）。Oxylipin 浓度在 FBS 批次之间也有显着差异。12-脂氧合酶产品的差异最大（例如，12-羟基二十碳四烯酸游离 21-87 nM 和总 58-108 nM），可能是由于血清生成程序不一致。我们的结果表明，对于涉及脂质代谢的细胞培养研究，研究人员应仔细表征他们使用的 FBS，以确保研究结果的可靠性和可重复性。