Growth and adipose differentiation of sheep preadipocyte fibroblasts in serum‐free medium

Fibroblasts from ovine skin, and from the perirenal and subcutaneous adipose tissues of sheep were grown at clonal densities in medium MCDB 202 supplemented with 1 μg/ml bovine insulin, 1 μM dexamethasone, 100 ng/ml fibroblast growth factor and 20 μg/ml of the lipid preparation described by Bettger, W. J., Boyce, S. T., Walthall, B. J. and Ham, R. G. [(1981) Proc. Natl Acad. Sci, USA, 78 , 5588–5592]. When maintained as a confluent monolayer in this medium, the fibroblasts from the adipose tissues spontaneously underwent an adipose differentiation. This was accelerated by substituting medium F12 for medium MCDB 202, and by raising the CO 2 tension from 2% to 7.5% in air over the cultures. The differentiation was inhibited by deleting FGF from the growth medium, or by coating the culture surface with fibronectin or poly‐D‐lysine. Differentiation also failed to occur when the defined supplements were replaced with fetal bovine serum. The synthesis of triacylglycerol by the cells, as seen by the increased specific activity of [ 14 C]acetate incorporated into this lipid class, was accompanied by an increase in the specific activity of glycerol‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase.