Huntington's disease--growth of fibroblast cultures in lipid-deficient medium: a preliminary report.

When skin fibroblast cultures derived from subjects with Huntington's disease (HD) were grown in medium supplemented with lipid-deficient serum (LDS), growth rates were less than those of control cultures. The mean percentage increase in generation times for nine control cultures incurred by using LDS rather than fetal calf serum (FCS) was 8.0%. Four cultures from 2 patients with HD failed to grow in LDS but grew well in medium supplemented with FCS. In nine other cultures derived from 7 patients with HD the mean percentage increase in generation time incurred by using LDS was 88.1%. Returning cultures to FCS or adding a mixture of linoleic and linolenic acids restored the growth rate of HD cultures to normal.