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. 1973 Dec;70(12 Pt 1-2):3669–3673. doi: 10.1073/pnas.70.12.3669

Manipulation of Fatty Acid Composition in Animal Cells Grown in Culture*

Bernadine J Wisnieski 1, Robert E Williams 1, C Fred Fox 1
PMCID: PMC427303  PMID: 4519656

Abstract

The fatty acid composition of animal cells cultured in serum-free medium can be manipulated when the synthesis of endogenous fatty acids is inhibited by a biotin analog and fatty acids are supplied in the medium as detergent esters of Tween. When mouse LM cells were grown in medium supplemented with Tween-19:0 (an ester of Tween and nonadecanoic acid), odd chain fatty acid content of cellular phospholipids and neutral lipids increased from 1% to 75%. Concurrently, the saturated fatty acid content increased from 27% to 85%. Similar alterations in fatty acid content have been observed when BHK21 cells are subjected to the same enrichment regime. The ability to control the fatty acid composition of cultured animal cells is a prerequisite to investigations into the role of the membrane lipid physical state in processes unique to these cells.

Keywords: LM cells, desthiobiotin, serum-free medium, membranes, detergents

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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