What media should I use?

JCRB Cell Bank

Please use the medium described in the Cell Line Data Sheet / JCRB website cell line detail
information.

[Point of choice]
Essentially, each classical medium has sole standard formulation, but many modified products are
sold by manufacturers, such as without L-glutamine, with HEPES, etc.
L-glutamine

For all mammalian cell culture, L-glutamine is one of essential amino acids. All media
should contain L-glutamine finally. However, some commercially available media do not containit. This is because this component is not so stable in aqueous solution and not suitable for longterm storage in liquid media. If this amino acid is not included in your media, you have to add.
Some media contain its stable substitute, L-alanyl L-glutamine (such as GlutaMAXTM, glutagroTM).

HEPES
In general, HEPES is not the standard component of classical media such as MEM, DMEM, RPMI
1640 and Ham’s F-12. HEPES is sometimes used for strongly buffering the pH, but not theessential component.

Phenol red
Phenol red is pH indicator, and usually included in the media.

Eagle’s minimum essential medium (MEM)– Earle’s salts and Hanks’ salts.:
For the cultivation in CO2 incubator, please choose Earle’s salts formulation.
– Non essential amino acids (NEAA), sodium pyruvate:
NEAA and sodium pyruvate are not the standard components in MEM.

Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM)– Low glucose and high glucose, sodium pyruvate:
The standard formulation is low glucose (1 g/L), and high glucose (4.5 g/L) is a modification. JCRB
used low glucose formulation unless otherwise described. Sodium pyruvate is one ofstandard components of DMEM.

AntibioticsIt is no problem to use antibiotic for cell culture, such as 100 units/mL penicillin + 100 ug/mL
streptomycin. We don't recommend to add Fungizon (amphotericin B). In some cell types, it affects
inhibitory to growth of cells.

FBS (fetal bovine serum) and FCS (fetal calf serum)
FBS and FCS is the same material.

JCRB Cell Bank essentially uses the media with standard formulation.
The following table shows the example of liquid media products with standard formulation.
Fujifilm Wako

GIBCO(Thermofisher)

Sigma Aldrich(Merck,Millipore)CorningMEM

Eagle's minimum
essential medium,
EMEM, E-MEM

051-07615

11095-080

M4655

10-010-CV

MEM with NEAA

Eagle's minimum
essential medium with
non-essential amino
acids055-08975

10370-021 (addL-glutamine to 2mM)

M0325,
M5650 (add Lglutamine to 2mM)

10-009-CV

MEM alphaalpha MEM, αMEM
alpha modification ofMEM

137-17215

12571-063

M8042 (add Lglutamine to 2mM)

10-022-CV

DMEM (lowglucose) [standardDMEM]

Dulbecco's modified
Eagle's medium,
D-MEM, DME

041-29775

11885-084

D6046

10-014-CV

DMEM (highglucosemodification)

DMEM with 4.5 g/L
glucose043-30085

11995-065

D6429

10-013-CV

189-02025

11875-093

R8758

10-040-CV

N6658

10-080-CV

RPMI 1640

F-12

Ham's F-12,
Ham's nutrient mixture
F-12087-08335

11765-054

F-12K

Ham's F-12K
Kaighn's modificationof F-12080-08565

21127-022

F-10

Ham's F-10,
Ham's nutrient mixture
F-10

DMEM/F-12

DME/F-12,
1:1 mixture of DMEM
and Ham's F-12

L-15

Leibovitz's L-15
mediumBME

basal medium Eagle,
Eagle's basal medium

10-025-CV

11550-043

N6908

10-070-CV

048-29785

11330-032(containsHEPES)

D8062

10-090-CV

128-06075

11415-064

L1518

10-045-CV

21010-046 (addL-glutamine to 2mM)

B1522 (add Lglutamine to 2mM)

McCoy's 5A

16600-082

M9309

10-050-CV

Medium 199

11150-059

M4530

10-060-CV

12551-032 (addL-glutamine to 2mM), 32551-020(contains
GLUTAMAX)

W4128 (add Lglutamine to 2mM)

William's medium
E100X L-glutaminesolution (200 mM)
for MEM

supplement to media

073-05391

25030-081

G7513

25-005-CI

100X non-essential
amino acids
solution (10 mM)
for MEM

supplement to media

139-15651

11140-050

M7145

25-025-CI