Opti-MEM™ Reduced-Serum Medium is an improved Minimal Essential Medium (MEM) that allows for a reduction of Fetal Bovine Serum supplementation by at least 50% with no change to growth rate or morphology. Opti-MEM™ is also recommended for use with cationic lipid transfection reagents, such as Lipofectamine™ reagent. Opti-MEM™ can be used with a variety of suspension and adherent mammalian cells, including Sp2, AE-1, CHO, BHK-21, HEK, and primary fibroblasts. We offer a variety of Gibco™ Opti-MEM™ modifications for a range of cell culture applications.

The complete formulation is confidential. For more information, please contact Technical Services.

Gibco™ Opti-MEM™ is a unique media that contains insulin, transferrin, hypoxanthine, thymidine, and trace elements. These additional components allow for a reduction in serum supplementation by at least 50%.

Gibco™ Opti-MEM™ uses a sodium bicarbonate buffer system (2.4 g/L) and therefore requires a 5-10% CO₂ environment to maintain physiological pH.

Powder forms of Gibco™ cell culture medium require sodium bicarbonate supplementation, pH adjustment and filtration at the time of preparation (see protocol for details).