TY - JOUR A2 - Heuser, Vanina AU - Arigony, Ana Lúcia Vargas AU - de Oliveira, Iuri Marques AU - Machado, Miriana AU - Bordin, Diana Lilian AU - Bergter, Lothar AU - Prá, Daniel AU - Pêgas Henriques, João Antonio PY - 2013 DA - 2013/05/27 TI - The Influence of Micronutrients in Cell Culture: A Reflection on Viability and Genomic Stability SP - 597282 VL - 2013 AB - Micronutrients, including minerals and vitamins, are indispensable to DNA metabolic pathways and thus are as important for life as macronutrients. Without the proper nutrients, genomic instability compromises homeostasis, leading to chronic diseases and certain types of cancer. Cell-culture media try to mimic the in vivo environment, providing in vitro models used to infer cells' responses to different stimuli. This review summarizes and discusses studies of cell-culture supplementation with micronutrients that can increase cell viability and genomic stability, with a particular focus on previous in vitro experiments. In these studies, the cell-culture media include certain vitamins and minerals at concentrations not equal to the physiological levels. In many common culture media, the sole source of micronutrients is fetal bovine serum (FBS), which contributes to only 5–10% of the media composition. Minimal attention has been dedicated to FBS composition, micronutrients in cell cultures as a whole, or the influence of micronutrients on the viability and genetics of cultured cells. Further studies better evaluating micronutrients' roles at a molecular level and influence on the genomic stability of cells are still needed. SN - 2314-6133 UR - https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/597282 DO - 10.1155/2013/597282 JF - BioMed Research International PB - Hindawi Publishing Corporation KW - ER -