VLE RPMI 1640

Very Low Endotoxin (VLE) RPMI 1640 is a cell culture medium with a greatly reduced endotoxin content. It is ideally suited for the cultivation of sensitive cell lines such as leukocytes, bone marrow cells and hybridoma cells. VLE RPMI 1640 is also used for primary cell cultures, hybridoma cloning and transfections. The low endotoxin content reduces batch variations of the medium and increases the reproducibility of the experiments.

Endotoxins are structurally lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and are components of the outer cell membrane of gram-negative bacteria or cyanobacteria. They are released by living bacteria through the cleavage of vesicles or upon death through the disintegration of the outer cell wall and trigger strong cellular and immunological reactions. Bacteria are inactivated by various sterilization processes, but endotoxins are very heat-stable and usually even survive sterilization. In cell culture, endotoxins lead to undesired immunological cellular reactions, a negative influence on transfection and they reduce both the transfection efficiency and the reproducibility of the experiments.