1 M, pH 7.0-7.6, sterile-filtered, BioReagent, suitable for cell culture.

HEPES (4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid) is a zwitterionic organic chemical buffering agent. HEPES is widely used in cell culture, largely because it is better at maintaining physiological pH despite changes in carbon dioxide concentration (produced by cellular respiration) when compared to bicarbonate buffers, which are also commonly used in cell culture.

Application
HEPES has been used as a component of:
Hank’s balanced salt solution, Dulbecco’s modified eagle’s medium and no-glucose DMEM, which are used for the preparation of tissue slices.
Buffers used in localized conductance measurements on the basolateral side of culture inserts to examine cation selectivity.

General description:
HEPES has been described as one of the best all-purpose buffers available for biological research. At biological pH, the molecule is zwitterionic, and is effective as a buffer at pH 6.8 to 8.2 (pKa 7.55). It is typically used in cell culture at concentration between 5mM to 30 mM. HEPES has been used in a wide variety of applications, including tissue culture. It is commonly used to buffer cell culture media in air. HEPES finds its usage in in vitro experiments on Mg.