Cytokines are a lot like chili peppers. Let us explain by showing you how our Happy Cells deal with variable cytokine concentrations – or different heat levels of spicy chili peppers.

Enhancing cell culture with MACS® Premium-Grade Cytokines

• Activity-based cytokine dosing allows for reproducible results
• Calibrated cytokine activity values enable comparable results
• Optimal cytokine dosing increases reliability and reduces reagent expenses
• Known lot-specific activities save time and costs needed for batch testing

Weight doesn't seem to be a fitting measure for (chili) peppers. Is it for cytokines?

Stemmy stands confused! Why does this tiny pepper bring more to the scale than the big one – Oh right, the scale measures the heat level and it’s a chili pepper!

Weight is an accepted and valuable measure in the kitchen as well as in the lab. However, when it comes to chili peppers – and also cytokines – the weight does not equal the spiciness or activity, respectively. With regards to recombinant cytokines, only correctly expressed and properly folded proteins are biologically active and thus will impact the cellular response in a bioassay. Consequently, weight-based cytokine dosing can introduce considerable variability in cell culture conditions.

See how the amount of active cytokine varies between production batches and learn about the consequences for cell culture reproducibility. Explore cytokine activity

Cytokine dosing without standardization is like using chili peppers regardless of their heat level.

Den Dritic seems to be worried! How’s he supposed to know which chili pepper brings just the right amount of spiciness to his recipe?

Similar to the various heat levels of chili peppers, the biological activity of recombinant cytokines differs. It is determined using bioassays measuring the response of cultured cells to distinct cytokine doses. However, bioassays generally result in relative cytokine activity values, which vary between assay types, experimental runs, and different laboratories.

In order to make activity values of a certain cytokine comparable to each other, bioassays are calibrated with international standards. Find out more about standardization of biological activity and how it can increase cell culture reproducibility. Spot the benefit of cytokine standardization

The more the better? – Not if you are talking about cytokines, let alone chili peppers.

To the rescue! Someone clearly added too much chili pepper to this dish. Poor Miss Neuronika! Is this also how she feels when cytokines are oversaturated?

When culturing cells, applying the right amount of active cytokine is key to keeping your cells happy. Adding excessive amounts of cytokine affects the cellular response, it changes the experimental outcome and can even be detrimental to the cells. Just keep Miss Neuronika’s expression in mind after tasting a really spicy chili dish.

Efficient cytokine dosing on the other hand creates appropriate cell culture conditions and saves reagent expenses. See how dose-response curves can be used to determine the optimal cytokine amount and discover scientific publications showing the criticality of proper cytokine dosing. Learn more about optimal cytokine dosing

Because testing every new bottle of chili sauce (or cytokines) would just be tedious!

Cap’n T Cell wants to be exact, but he’s tired of testing each new bottle of chili sauce to evaluate the spiciness. Can you relate?

Are you loyal to your favorite chili sauce because you trust its taste and know the spiciness will be constant with every new bottle? We understand! What if you were able to rely on every new cytokine vial you work with in the same way? You could skip tedious lot-to-lot testing used to determine the biological activity of each new cytokine batch.

Thanks to the lot-specific activity of MACS Premium-Grade Cytokines this is now possible. See how much time and material expenses could be saved because we already did the testing for you! Get around lot-to-lot testing

Bring back the smiles to these Happy Cell faces!

Bringing back the smiles to our Happy Cells has never been easier! With every vial of MACS® Premium-Grade Cytokines, we provide the lot-specific biological activity determined with international standards whenever available. Therefore, MACS Premium-Grade Cytokines allow for convenient activity-based cytokine dosing. You can skip lot-to-lot testing, saving time and reagent. Once titrated for your experimental need, you can reliably use the optimal dose of active cytokine without the need for oversaturation, creating reproducible cell culture conditions.

Rely on lot-specific cytokine activity with MACS Premium-Grade Cytokines.