Description

McCoy’s 5A Modified Media-MAX (M5AMM-MAX)

Background

McCoy’s 5A Modified Media MAX (M5AMM-MAX) is a commonly used media for Mammalian cell culture.

Advantages

The advantages of McCoy’s 5A MAX over McCoy’s 5A  are:

• Higher PH Capacity
• Moreover, it contains 4 mM L-Alanyl-L-Glutamine (0.869 g/L) instead of L-Glutamine and therefore:
• Possess longer shelf life.
• More importantly, minimizes toxic ammonia build-up.
• Significantly improves cell viability and growth.
• Remains stable across a wide range of temperatures.
• Improves the culture of primary cells.

Mechanism

Although L-glutamine is a vital amino acid, it degrades, resulting in the generation of toxic ammonia and pyrrolidine carboxylic acid. One way to minimize L-glutamine degradation in media is to gradually add these amino acids to your cell culture. However, keeping track of time to keep the amount of L-glutamine at the same level is tedious, if not impossible.

Alternatively, L-alanyl-L-glutamine can be used because it is much more stable in aqueous solutions. More importantly, it does not easily degrade and gradually releases aminopeptidases. As a result, L-glutamine and L-alanine are then used by the cells for protein production in the TCA cycle.

In addition to our Max formulation products, we manufacture PurMa^TM GluaSup (Cat# P3S210 559) is a combination of L-alanyl-L-glutamine which prevents degradation of L-glutamine.

Contents

McCoy’s 5A Modified Media MAX (M5AMM-MAX) contains:

• 5 mM sodium pyruvate
• High glucose (4.5g/L)
• Non-Essential Amino Acids
• 3.7 g/L Sodium Bicarbonate; PurMa Biologics Manufactures several types of McCoy’s 5A  based on the amount of Sodium Bicarbonate and HEPES (PH capacity)
• Phenol Red

McCoy’s 5A MAX contains no proteins, lipids, or growth factors. Therefore, it requires supplementation, commonly with 10% Fetal bovine Serum (FBS).

Formulation

The complete formulation can be found here: McCoy’s 5A MAX Formulation

References

1. Mycoplasmal infection of insect cell cultures. Steiner T, McGarrity G. In Vitro. 1983 Sep;19(9):672-82. doi: 10.1007/BF02628958.PMID: 6413389
2. Investigations on in vitro survival and virulence of T. pallidum under aerobiosis. Rathlev T. Br J Vener Dis. 1975 Oct;51(5):296-300. doi: 10.1136/sti.51.5.296. PMID: 172190
3. Altered polyamine metabolism in Chinese hamster cells growing in a defined medium. Sertich GJ, et al. J Cell Physiol. 1986 Apr;127(1):114-20. doi: 10.1002/jcp.1041270115.PMID: 3958058