[Proliferation and differentiation of a myogenic line in synthetic media]

When plated in plastic culture dishes, muscle cells of the L6 cell line are unable to proliferate or to differentiate in a synthetic medium composed of Dulbecco's Minimal Essential medium (DME), bovine fetuin (1 mg/ml) and bovine insulin (10 micrograms/ml). In contrast, these cells will proliferate and differentiate morphologically and biochemically in this medium if the culture dishes have been previously treated with DME containing fetal Calf serum. Pretreatment of dishes does not increase cell attachment in synthetic medium but seems to act as a factor increasing cell viability.