HUVEC/TERT2 cells are grown in a medium containing animal-derived products (e.g. bovine brain extract and fetal bovine serum), which show high lot-to-lot variabilities. On the contrary, HUVEC/TERT66 cells are cultivated in a xeno-free medium. Therefore, HUVEC/TERT66 cells follow the current trend towards defined, xeno-free cultivation conditions, which is an essential step towards standardized cell culture.
Additionally, the growth rates differ between the two cell lines. Whereas HUVEC/TERT2 shows a population doubling time of about 28 hours, HUVEC/TERT66 cells grow significantly slower with a population doubling time of 72 hours.