Comparing The Efficacy Of Multi-Source Serum For In Vitro Culture Of Equine Achilles Tendon Fibroblasts

In-vitro culture of equine Achilles tendon fibroblasts (ATFs) is a feasible method to study hallmarks of tendinopathy, but ATFs should be viable and grown enough. For this purpose proper medium and supplements are required, which contain suitable growth factors for viability of ATFs. Fetal bovine serum (FBS) is used extensively in cell culture but being expensive and scarce in availability, its alternatives are needed. This study proposed autologous equine serum (AES) and adult bovine serum (ABS) to be evaluated as alternative to FBS. ATFs were cultured in DMEM-HG and supplemented with 10% FBS, 10% AES and 10% ABS. At passage 4, each group showed same morphology and appearance, there was also no significant difference between any groups, when viability was compared by using Trypan blue staining. Collagen1 was also equally expressed in all groups and there was no significant difference observed. Thus, present study concluded that AES or ABS could also be used as affordable alternatives to FBS. ABS could be preferred as it can easily be obtained from slaughter house and has almost equal potential to culture ATFs compared to FBS.