In a previous article, jsteer at receptor.pharm.uwa.edu.au (Jay Steer) wrote:
>When monocytes are cultured in endotoxin free (<20pg LPS/ml ) serum
>containing medium they show no spontaneous release of proinflammatory
>cytokines. We have recently started culturing monocytes in a serum free
>medium which contains 2mg/ml BSA. We have found that BSA containg as little
>as 25-50 pg LPS/mg stimulates monoctes causing them to release
>proinflammatory cytokines. Does anybody out there know of a source of BSA
>which has less than 20 pg LPS/mg (<0.1 EU/mg)?? ( The lowest we have found
>to date is from Boehringer mannheim cat.no.1081489 lot 14756700 which
>tested at 25-35 pg LPS/ml.)
Jay:
Wow! That's a tall order... We are in a complement/inflammation group and
the lab downstairs examines the expression of factor B and C3 (plus other
acute phase proteins) from monocytes and fibroblasts. They too are
concerned with LPS and go to great efforts to ensure their reagents are
free from as much LPS as possible (much like you). They have had fairly
good luck with Albumin Fraction V from Sigma, CAT #A4919 advertised as low
endotoxin and the label says less than 0.1 ng/mg. I realize that is 4 fold
over what you want but I figure I'd suggest this as well as it seems to
work for them.
Hope this helps,
David
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