Hydroxyethylpiperazine ethanesulfonic acid HEPES is a weak acid, used as a zwitterionic buffer in biochemical testing. Compared with other buffers, it has the advantage of non-cytotoxicity, so it is widely used in various cells and viruses. Although it is not as widely used as Tris in the culture medium or preservation medium, it has significant advantages under certain circumstances.
The advantages of HEPES in production:
The production process of HEPES is pollution-free and waste-free. It can achieve clean production and has a good scientific and technological demonstration effect; and it can use cheap chemical raw materials under the action of high temperature, certain pressure and catalysts, through extraction, crystallization, coupling separation, etc. It is refined by multi-step chemical unit operation. It can be synthesized from hydroxyethylpiperazine and sodium chloroethanesulfonate, or synthesized from sodium isethionate and ethylpiperazine. Originally, its production technology used organic solvents (from solid to liquid-wet process) for trial production. The wet process has a large amount of solvents, high energy consumption for evaporation and easy residual solvents. Now it adopts the catalytic reverse crystallization method, and its technology is significantly upgraded. Product quality is improved.
HEPES acts as a buffer for enzymes under low temperature conditions
Generally, the use condition of biological buffer is 25 degrees Celsius at room temperature, or higher temperature (according to the optimal pH range of the enzyme), but sometimes it is necessary to experiment under low temperature conditions, and some buffers are obviously not suitable for use due to the influence of low temperature. The decomposition ability of HEPES can increase with the increase of temperature, and decrease with the decrease of temperature. However, compared with other buffers, its decomposition constant does not change much with temperature, which makes HEPES buffers better at low temperatures. A buffer that maintains the structure and function of the enzyme.
HEPES has no toxic side effects on cells
HEPES buffer can control a constant pH range for a long time. Low-concentration HEPES has no toxic effect on cells. It is often used in cell culture. For example, HEPES can be added to the culture solution or virus preservation solution of various bacteria and fungi to maintain cells, The pH environment required by bacteria and viruses.
In addition to the use of hydroxyethylpiperazine ethanesulfonic acid HEPES in cell culture fluids and virus preservation solutions, it is also used in many in vitro diagnostic kits containing enzymes, and even in cosmetics containing buffers. Desheng is a manufacturer of biological buffers, which can provide a variety of biological buffers such as HEPES, Tris, CAPS, etc. in sufficient quantities.