What’s the pretty color in “stem cell conditioned media”? Phenolsulfonphthalein. What else is in there?

What is “stem cell conditioned media (SCCM)”? It’s the liquid that helps maintain and grow stem cells growing on solid support. To keep the cells growing, it has to be discarded (and fresh medium added). Human stem cells may be used for a number of applications, but the old medium has no other use. After all, it now contains stuff the living cells discarded, it has been depleted of chemicals the cells used for sustenance, and its composition is now unknown.

The fresh medium is a solution containing all amino acids, sugars, vitamins, etc. that the cells need to live. For convenience, it also includes a pH indicator, to alert the technician is something is wrong. Phenol red, a.k.a. phenolsulfonephthalein. It’s a pH indicator dye used in cell biology. A solution of phenol red is often used as a pH indicator in cell cultures. Its color gradually transitions from yellow to red over the pH range 6.8 to 8.2. Above pH 8.2, phenol red turns a bright pink color.

What else may be in there? Besides the usual chemicals that in a human would be delivered by blood, the cells need other chemicals to grow. These additions will keep the isolated cells alive without the support system they have in the body, like blood to provide nutrients and remove unwanted metabolism products. Here are some of them:  buffer, bovine pituitary extract, epidermal growth factor 10ng/ml, insulin, hydrocortisone, isoproterenol, transferrin 5ug/ml, amphotericin B (antifungal), gentamicin (antibacterial). Why these antibiotics? In the absence of the immune system, human cells need lots of antibiotics, otherwise the cultures would be invaded by bacteria and fungi because they grow much faster than human cells.

It’s unsurprising that this discarded medium contains growth factors because they were added to the initial growth medium. The question is, why would you want to use it in a skin care product. There are several answers: price (cheap, otherwise it would be discarded and fresh medium added), and its INCI name, “stem cell conditioned media,” doesn’t include the antibiotics, bovine pituitary extract, and other chemicals the buyer would object to.

Kudos to the people who had the brilliant idea of selling stuff that used to be discarded after sanitation with Clorox or something similar; the cosmetic industry covets that. And to the publicists who can sell anything to women.

If you want to do better, do it the honest way: just add the pure growth factor protein (get it from hannahsivak.com) to a base that contains nutrients the human skin needs without the additions that make SCCM a mix of undetermined composition worthy of an autoclave and NOT human skin. And for that pretty color? Just add a hint of a nice antioxidant, like anthocyanins from raspberry or anything else you wouldn’t be ashamed to use.

Hannah