Investigation Of Quercetin Stability In Cell Culture Medium: Role In In Vitro Experiment

The aims of this work are to investigate the in vitro stability of quercetin, a focused compound in food components and a candidate drug, and to supply the essential information for the experimental researches of quercetin. The stability of quercetin in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) and H2O at the cell culture pH range of 6 of 8 at continued time points, as well as 6 frequently used supplements in DMEM was investigated. The assay of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used for quercetin determination. Considering the stable conditions of quercetin, the transport behavior of quercetin in Neuro-2a (N2a) cells was investigated at the dosages of 58.8 and 7.83 mu g/ml at 37 degrees C for different time points. It is shown that quercetin remained stable in DMEM at pH of 6 with or without 10 mM/L HEPES, 5% D (+)-glucose, 110 mg/L sodium pyruvate, antibiotics (50 IU/ml penicillin and 0.05 mg/ml streptomycin), or 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS), but was decreasing at pH of 7 or 8 with or without 3.7 g/L NaHCO3. Quercetin transported through N2a cells in 10 min in both dosages of 58.8 and 7.83 mu g/ml. Our data demonstrate that the culture conditions of quercetin in vitro should be considered to acquire the convictive results in the experiments.