[Serum-free culture for leukemia cells]

Several human and murine acute myeloid leukemia cell lines growing in serum-free and protein-free culture medium are known to be established. In this paper, recent development of serum-free and protein-free culture methods for leukemia cells and the characteristics of the established cell lines are reviewed. Chemically defined culture medium is preferable as compared with serum-containing culture medium because the latter contains various, undefined factors which make it difficult to investigate the interactions between cell proliferation or differentiation and various growth factors. Investigations using leukemia cell lines which are maintained in a serum-free and protein-free chemically defined medium will provide the important information with respect to cell biology of leukemia cells and leukemia therapy.