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Widespread presence of bovine proteins in human cell lines
Simon Sugár1,2, Lilla Turiák1, Károly Vékey1
1MS Proteomics Research Group, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Magyar tudósok körútja 2, H-1117, Budapest, Hungary.
Abstract:
HPLC-MS/MS analysis of various human cell lines shows the presence of a major amount of bovine protein contaminants. These likely originate from fetal bovine serum (FBS), typically used in cell cultures. If evaluated against a human protein database, on average 10% of the identified human proteins will be misleading (bovine proteins, but indicated as if they were human). Bovine contaminants therefore may cause major bias in proteomic studies of cell cultures, if not considered explicitly.
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