Relative rates of protein synthesis and reaggregation in embryonic chick liver cells cultured in defined and supplemented media

Protein synthesis and aggregate diameters were measured in cultures of 7-day embryonic chick liver cells reaggregating for 20 h in chemically-defined medium and in media supplemented with horse serum and with beef embryo extract. Statistically significant differences were found between defined and supplemented media in the rate of increase of mean aggregate diameters over a 20 h period. However, no statistically significant differences were detected in the rates of cellular protein synthesis in the different media. The results suggest that chemically-defined media are preferable to embryo extract and/or serum-supplemented media for short-term cell aggregation studies.