Minimum Essential Medium Eagle has been used for the formulation of collagen methacrylamide (hydrogel). It has also been used to maintain articular cartilage of bovine knee joints, which was later used for MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) study and histological analysis.
Generally used to grow attached cell lines, such as fibroblasts, in the presence of FBS, calf or horse sera.
Adding supplements of amino acids to media stimulates growth and prolongs the viability of cells in culture. MEM Amino Acids (50x) solution concentrated supplement adds nutrients and reduces the biosynthetic burden on cell in vitro. It has been used in in vitro cultures, co-cultures and incubation media.
It contains 19 amino acids. The essential amino acids and the non-essential amino acids; L-ala; L-asn; L-asp; L-glu; L-gly; L-pro and L-ser. May be preferred for growth of adherent cells in the presence of reduced serum or as a base for development of a serum free medium.
MEM usually autoclaved with 0.5% bactopeptone at 15 psi for 20 min, cooled and then neutralized with NaHCO3, consistently supported good cell growth. A similar result was obtained when the MEM and bactopeptone were autoclaved separately. The cells grow, initially, as a monolayer and subsequently become a stationary suspension.
