Bovine Serum Albumin

Bovine serum albumin (BSA) that belongs to the serum albumin family, is an α-helical, globular and non-glycosylated protein. It comprises three domains with two subdomains under each domain.

Bovine Serum Albumin has been used:

• as a component of cryomedia for freezing testicular tissue
• to resuspend myometrial cells in flow cytometric analysis for cell viability quantification
• to block cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) for immunofluorescence staining

Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) is a transporter for drugs, hormones, and fatty acids. It displays high solubility and is exploited in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. BSA is useful as a cell media component and favors embryonic stem cells (hESC)differentiation.

Certain conformational and primary-sequence epitopes of BSA are suspected allergens in human beef and milk allergies.

Derived from New Zealand source serum

Prepared using heat shock fractionation

Serum albumin may be referred to as Fraction V. This naming convention is taken from the original Cohn method of fractionating serum proteins using cold ethanol precipitation. Serum albumin was found in the fifth ethanol fraction using Cohn′s method. Since then, the term "Fraction V" has been used by some to describe serum albumin regardless of the method of preparation. Others have used this term to describe serum albumin purified by ethanol fractionation methods that have been highly modified since the original Cohn method was described. Sigma-Aldrich manufactures and distributes serum albumins purified from a variety of primary methods including the true Cohn fractionation method, modified ethanol fractionation methods, heat shock and chromatography. Additional purification steps may include crystallization or charcoal filtration.