Stem cells from umbilical cords, bone marrow or embryos are cultured in vitro to produce specialized, differentiated cells such as muscle, heart or nerve cells. These adaptable stems cells and other primary cells such as keratinocytes, fibroblasts, osteoblasts and many others are used in regenerative medicine. They are also used for tissue transplantation, medical therapies to treat diseases like leukemia, and in basic research.

Stem and primary cells have many uses, but they are not usually easy cells to maintain or grow. They are generally grown in medium containing fetal bovine serum (FBS), bovine serum albumin (BSA), human serum albumin (HSA), or knock-out serum replacement (KSR).

Some scientists avoid animal or human-derived components in cell culture media due to problems with variability, risk of infection, morphology alterations and differentiation. Research for regenerative medicine and transplantation is too important to let these problems continue. InVitria’s cell culture supplements, Cellastim (recombinant human albumin), Lacromin (recombinant human lactoferrin) and Optiferrin (recombinant human transferrin) have shown to optimize stem cell culture by improving performance and reducing the regulatory and safety risks.

Advantages to using InVitria's products Cellastim, Lacromin and Optiferrin instead of animal-derived components in stem cell culture medium:

• Eliminates animal-derived additives-safe and regulatory friendly
• Proven effective in enhancing stem cell growth inembryonic, mesenchymal, neural, cardiac, liver, kidney, osteoblast, keratinocyte and fibroblast stem cell lines 
• Maintains stem cells in an undifferentiated state 
• Eliminates coating of culture plates for adherent cell lines 
• Provides well-defined and consistent stem cell medium