http://tehrantimes.com/science/113277-iranian-researchers-at-royan-institute-produce-human-serum-for-knee-cartilage?goback=%2Egde_3834520_member_5826946974250721281#%21

Iranian researchers at Royan Institute produce human serum for knee cartilage 

TEHRAN - The head of the Royan Institute says Iranian scientists have gained knowledge of a new technique to produce human growth cell serum replacing fetal calf serum (FBS) in the treatment of traumatized cartilages.  

Dr. Naser Aqdami, in an interview with the Persian services of ISNA news agency published on Tuesday, said although FBS is a popular way of treating cartilage problems, it carries its own risk of transferring animal disease to human. 

Therefore, with the new human serum technology that issue is completely resolved, he explained. 

Dr. Aqdami also noted that human serum contains growth factors derived from patients’ blood that could substitute for the imported animal’s serum. 

The development of the technique, Aqdami said, has been underway since last year with the cooperation of the Taleghani Hospital. 

Fetal bovine serum (FBS) or fetal calf serum is the blood fraction remaining after the natural coagulation of blood, followed by centrifugation to remove any remaining red blood cells. Fetal bovine serum comes from the blood drawn from a bovine fetus via a closed system of collection at the slaughterhouse. Fetal bovine serum is the most widely used serum-supplement for the in vitro cell culture of eukaryotic cells. This is due to it having a very low level of antibodies and containing more growth factors, allowing for versatility in many different cell culture applications.

Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, Stem Cell Biology and Technology is a leading Iranian biomedical research center involved in stem cell technology and regenerative medicine.