Tet System Approved Fetal Bovine Serum

High-quality Tet System Approved Fetal Bovine Serum, has been functionally tested* to ensure that it permits the full range of tetracycline-regulated induction with well-characterized Tet cell lines and embryonic stem cells. As the exclusive licensed distributor of tetracycline-controlled gene expression systems, only Clontech is certified to offer FBS that can ensure optimum induction with all Tet Gene Expression Systems. Four versions of Tet System Approved FBS are available.

• The US-Sourced FBS is a premium serum that is collected in the United States.
• The Australia-Sourced FBS is a premium serum that is collected in Australia.
• The ES Cell Qualified FBS is a premium serum that is collected in the United States and qualified for use in embryonic stem cells.
• The standard Tet System Approved FBS is an economical alternative obtained from non-US, USDA-approved sources. 
• All sera are subjected to the same rigorous testing to ensure full inducibility.
• Each lot of our ES Cell Qualified serum undergoes additional tests to confirm expected results regarding cell size, cell morphology, colony forming ability, pluripotency, maintenance of ESC cells in the undifferentiated state, and the potential of ESCs to differentiate into embryoid bodies.

Other commercial serum products may contain tetracycline-derived contaminants which can dramatically affect the inducible regulation of Tet Systems (Figure 1). Even “antibiotic-free” serum that has no negative effect on cell growth may still exhibit enough activity to alter Tet-regulated gene expression. You can be confident that Tet System Approved FBS will not adversely affect Tet-On or Tet-Off experiments.

* Testing for the presence of tetracyclines in fetal or calf serum is not equivalent to the highly sensitive functional testing that is performed on Clontech Tet System Approved FBS.