Background: Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) are used for cell therapy purposes. Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) in culture media is essential for growth. As FBS may induce an immunological reaction and transfer pathogenic agents to MSC recipients, this study was designed to evaluate Adipose Tissue Stem Cells (ASCs) in FBS, human serum, switching of FBS to human serum and vice versa by cytology and flow cytometry.

Results: ASCs isolated and expanded in medium containing FBS were flat shape and slowly growing versus to those grown in medium containing human serum. The forward scatter data significantly demonstrated ASCs in FBS had large size as compared to others (p<0.05). Morphology of ASCs were similar to flow cytomertic findings. There are no significant differences in immunophenotypic markers of ASCs such as CD44, and CD90 grown in different media. However mean fluorescence intensity was higher for CD44 in human serum groups.

Conclusion: These results indicate that medium enriched with human serum improved the culture condition of ASCs in comparison with medium enriched with commercially available FBS. Switching of FBS to human serum may be a useful method for stem cells that are grown in medium containing FBS or frozen in FBS