The fatty acid profile of cells in culture are unlike those of natural cells with twice the monounsaturated (MUFA) and half the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) level (Mol%). This is not due to cell lines primarily being derived from cancers but is due to limited access to lipid and an inability to make PUFA de novo as vertebrate cells. Classic culture methods use media with 10% serum (the only exogenous source of lipid). Fetal bovine serum (FBS), the serum of choice has a low level of lipid and cholesterol compared to other sera and at 10% of media provides 2–3% of the fatty acid and cholesterol, 1% of the PUFA and 0.3% of the essential fatty acid linoleic acid (18:2n-6) available to cells in the body. Since vertebrate cell lines cannot make PUFA they synthesise MUFA, offsetting their PUFA deficit and reducing their fatty acid diversity. Stem and primary cells in culture appear to be similarly affected, with a rapid loss of their natural fatty acid compositions. The unnatural lipid composition of cells in culture has substantial implications for examining natural stems cell in culture, and for investigations of cellular mechanisms using cell lines based on the pervasive influence of fats.

培养细胞的脂肪酸谱与天然细胞的脂肪酸谱不同，天然细胞的单不饱和脂肪酸（MUFA）含量是两倍，多不饱和脂肪酸（PUFA）含量是一半（摩尔％）。这不是由于细胞系主要来源于癌症，而是由于脂质的获取途径有限以及无法将PUFA从头生产为脊椎动物细胞。经典的培养方法使用含有10％血清（脂质的唯一外源性来源）的培养基。胎牛血清（FBS），与其他血清相比，其血清脂质和胆固醇水平较低，在10％的培养基中可提供2-3％的脂肪酸​​和胆固醇，1％的PUFA和0.3％的脂肪酸必需脂肪酸亚油酸（18：2 n-6）可供体内的细胞使用。由于脊椎动物细胞系不能产生PUFA，因此它们会合成MUFA，从而抵消了它们的PUFA缺陷并降低了其脂肪酸多样性。培养中的干细胞和原代细胞似乎受到相似的影响，其天然脂肪酸组成迅速丧失。培养物中细胞的非天然脂质成分对于检查培养物中的自然干细胞以及使用基于脂肪的普遍影响的细胞系对细胞机制的研究具有重大意义。