Minimum Essential Medium (MEM) with Earle′s Balanced Salts was developed by Harry Eagle as a result of his studies to determine the essential nutritional requirements of mouse L cells and HeLa cells in culture. He demonstrated that these cells require 13 amino acids and seven vitamins to grow and reproduce in vitro. MEM is a modification of Eagle′s earlier medium Basal Medium Eagle (BME), containing higher concentrations of the essential nutrients. This medium has demonstrated the ability to support a variety of normal and transformed cells in culture and contains Earle′s Balanced Salts, which makes it suitable for use in atmospheres charged with CO2 gas.
Application
Minimum essential medium (MEM) has been used as a growth medium for bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and neurons.[1]
Metabolic reprogramming is emerging as a cancer vulnerability that could be therapeutically exploitable using different approaches, including amino acid depletion for those tumors that rely on exogenous amino acids for their maintenance. ʟ-Asparaginase (ASNase) has contributed to a significant improvement