Abstract
Introduction
Comparative metabolic profiling of different human cancer cell lines can reveal metabolic pathways up-regulated or down-regulated in each cell line, potentially providing insight into distinct metabolism taking place in different types of cancer cells. It is noteworthy, however, that human cell lines available from public repositories are deposited with recommended media for optimal growth, and if cell lines to be compared are cultured on different growth media, this introduces a potentially serious confounding variable in metabolic profiling studies designed to identify intrinsic metabolic pathways active in each cell line.
Objectives
The goal of this study was to determine if the culture media used to grow human cell lines had a significant impact on the measured metabolic profiles.
Methods
NMR-based metabolic profiles of hydrophilic extracts of three human pancreatic cancer cell lines, AsPC-1, MiaPaCa-2 and Panc-1, were compared after culture on Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM) or Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI-1640) medium.
Results
Comparisons of the same cell lines cultured on different media revealed that the concentrations of many metabolites depended strongly on the choice of culture media. Analyses of different cell lines grown on the same media revealed insight into their metabolic differences.
Conclusion
The choice of culture media can significantly impact metabolic profiles of human cell lines and should be considered an important variable when designing metabolic profiling studies. Also, the metabolic differences of cells cultured on media recommended for optimal growth in comparison to a second growth medium can reveal critical insight into metabolic pathways active in each cell line.
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The instrumentation used in this work was obtained with the support of Miami University and the Ohio Board of Regents with funds used to establish the Ohio Eminent Scholar Laboratory where the work was performed.
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Chihanga, T., Hausmann, S.M., Ni, S. et al. Influence of media selection on NMR based metabolic profiling of human cell lines. Metabolomics 14, 28 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-018-1323-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-018-1323-2