Call for manuscripts from Frontiers on advancing animal-free cell culture practices
Background
Cell culture has been instrumental in advancing cell biology and remains essential in various biomedical research fields, including developmental biology, regenerative medicine, and toxicology. Traditionally, scientists supplement their cell cultures with ‘Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS)’, also known as ‘Fetal Calf Serum (FCS)’. However, the use of FBS raises significant ethical and scientific concerns. Ethically, FBS is derived from bovine fetuses collected during the processing of pregnant cows in slaughterhouses. Scientifically, its batch-to-batch variability, unknown composition, the introduction of non-human biological material and other concerns can affect experimental reproducibility and relevance. To create more reliable, relevant and ethically responsible research models, it is important to transition away from FBS. Developing and adopting alternative solutions will enhance the physiological relevance of in vitro studies and support animal free-research methodologies.
Call for Manuscripts
The Frontiers Journal is now inviting submissions for the Research Topic ‘Advancing In Vitro Cell Culture Practices: Achieving Truly Animal-Free Experiments and Scientifically Reliable and Reproducible Methods’. This call for manuscripts aims at presenting and disseminating articles with easily implemented information regarding the use of non-animal products in different experimental settings involving cell lines. The final goal is to encourage and stimulate researchers to use animal-free experimental approaches, avoiding the use of FBS and other animal-derived sera. This initiative is also open to research data focussing on eliminating other animal-derived materials (e.g. Matrigel, trypsin, etc). All submitted research should must be conducted without the use of live animals.
Practical information
This research topic welcomes a broad range of submissions, including original research, reviews, mini-reviews, methods, perspectives, community case studies, conceptual analysis, data reports, policy briefs, brief research reports, general commentaries, and opinions.
Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Validation of OECD Test Guidelines using animal-product-free media, preferably using open-source media to emphasis on advancing reproducible methodologies,
- Explore strategies for the replacement of FBS in cosmetic testing, emphasizing the importance of ethical considerations in the cosmetic industry,
- Replacement of Matrigel and other animal-derived hydrogels in cell culture applications,
- Animal-free alternatives to trypsin for cell dissociation and passaging,
- Establishment of cell lines in animal-product free media, preferably using (non-proprietary) open-source media. This would address the entire cell culture process including passaging and cell banking,
- Stem cell research free of animal-derived materials,
- Re-evaluation of existing articles where the only used animal-derived product is Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA), urging the substitution of BSA with Human Serum Albumin (HSA).
This Research topic is still accepting articles. Manuscripts should be submitted before the 30th of May 2025. The guidelines can be found on the author’s guidelines page.
Sources:
- Link to the Call for Manuscripts: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/62076/advancing-in-vitro-cell-culture-practices-achieving-truly-animal-free-experiments-and-scientifically-reliable-and-reproducible-methods
- Author’s Guidelines: https://www.frontiersin.org/guidelines/author-guidelines
- FCS-free database from the 3Rs Centre Utrecht : https://fcs-free.sites.uu.nl/
- More information on FBS related concerns:
