Immunology of Cultivated Mammalian Cells. II. The Effect of Heterophil Hemagglutinin Content of Serum for Cultivation of Mammalian Cells2

Abstract

Pools of "normal" calf serum varied in capacity to agglutinate human and rabbit erythro-cytes; some high-titer serums were relatively toxic for growth of human and rabbit cells in continuous culture and for maintenance of human cells in primary culture. Serum toxicity for human and rabbit cells was nonspecifically reduced by absorption with human or rabbit erythrocytes. Lysed erythrocytes of either species added to calf serum improved its quality for cultivation of human and rabbit cells but did not inhibit comparably its capacity to agglutinate erythrocytes. Toxicity of the calf serum notably was decreased in the presence of unheated, compared to inactivated, guinea pig serum. Neither the ability of calf and guinea pig serums to agglutinate human and rabbit erythrocytes nor the toxicity of calf serum for cell cultures was reduced appreciably by absorption with human or rabbit culture cells.