NBS... Newborn Calf Serum... originates from 3 to 10 day old calves. Various suppliers claim that NCS contains a somewhat higher proportion of proteins and immunoglobulin, but fewer growth factors. FCS... Fetal Calf Serum... originates from bovine fetus. Supposedly contains less antibodies but more growth factors. BSA... Bovine Serum Albumin... nicknamed "Fraction V" as per the Cohn process for separation of albumin from blood plasma.
I could have sworn we used BSA in the wash buffer at the Emory Vaccine Center, but Altman's protocol calls for NCS. Tenang and McCaldin looked at the differential effect of NCS versus FBS in cell culture. Bockman describes a method to discern fetal serum from other sera, via Western blotting and ConA staining. Pollard and Walker, in Animal Cell Culture, write that the plating of bone marrow cells is better in NCS rather than FCS. A cursory search for NCS as used in flow seems to appear only in the context of functional cellular analysis: here and here.
For those not interested in mucking about with "baby cows", Johansonn et all describe using platelet lysate to replace FBS. As with all things manufactured... there is an industry association for serum.
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