Minimum Essential Medium Eagle (MEM) With Hank's salts, L-Glutamine and 25mM HEPES buffer Without Sodium bicarbonate is supplied by HiMedia. It is available in the form of an off-white to creamish white homogenous powder. The pH without Sodium Bicarbonate is between 5.5 -6.1 whereas the pH with Sodium Bicarbonate is between 6.1 -6.7. The osmolality without Sodium Bicarbonate is in the range of 295.00 -335.00 Osm/Kg H20 whereas the osmolality with Sodium Bicarbonate 305.00 -345.00 Osm/Kg H20. It is advisable to store this product between 2-8C. Media composition (in mg/L) is as follows:

Calcium chloride dihydrate (185.00)

Disodium hydrogen phosphate anhydrous (47.80)

Magnesium sulphate anhydrous (97.72)

Potassium chloride (400.00)

Potassium dihydrogen phosphate (60.00)

Sodium chloride (8000.00)

Amino acids

Choline chloride (1.00)

D-Ca-Pantothenate (1.00)

Folic acid (1.00)

Nicotinamide (1.00)

Pyridoxal hydrochloride (1.00)

Riboflavin (0.10)

Thiamine hydrochloride (1.00)

i-Inositol (2.00)

D-Glucose (1000.00)

HEPES buffer (5958.00)

Phenol red sodium salt (11.00)

Minimum Essential Medium (MEM) is a modification of Basal Medium Eagle (BME). Developed by Harry Eagle, it was designed to meet the specific nutritional requirements of certain subtypes of Hela cells and normal mammalian fibroblasts. MEM includes higher concentration of amino acids so as to closely approximate the protein composition of cultured mammalian cells. MEM can be used either with Earle's salts or Hank's salts and can also be additionally supplemented with non-essential amino acids (NEAA). This medium can be further modified by eliminating calcium to facilitate growth of cells in suspension cultures. HEPES is a zwitterionic buffer having a pKa of 7.3 at 37C, which prevents the initial rise in pH that tends to occur at the initiation of a culture and increases the buffering capacity of the medium.