Hanks balanced salt solution (hbss)

Q: What specific citation details should researchers use when referencing this HBSS in scientific publications?

When citing this HBSS, include the following key identifiers: Manufacturer (Thermo Fisher Scientific), Catalog Number, Lot Number, and specific formulation variant (e.g., with or without calcium, magnesium). Typical citation format includes: 'Hanks' Balanced Salt Solution (HBSS, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Catalog #XXXXX, Lot #YYYYY)'.

Q: What laboratory systems and reagents are most compatible with this HBSS?

This HBSS demonstrates high compatibility with related cell culture products such as fetal bovine serum (FBS), penicillin-streptomycin, trypsin-EDTA, and glutaMAX. It integrates seamlessly with standard mammalian cell culture protocols, particularly in conjunction with DMEM, PBS, and other Thermo Fisher Scientific cell culture media.

Q: What primary research domains utilize Thermo Fisher Scientific's HBSS?

HBSS is extensively used in cell biology, molecular biology, immunology, and stem cell research. Specific applications include cell washing, dilution of reagents, maintaining cellular isotonicity, preparing cell suspensions, and as a base medium for various experimental protocols involving mammalian cell cultures.

Q: What interesting scientific background underlies the development of HBSS?

HBSS was originally developed by Theodore Puck in the 1950s as a balanced salt solution to maintain physiological pH and provide essential ions for cellular survival outside the body. Its groundbreaking design revolutionized in vitro cell culture techniques, enabling more stable and reproducible experimental conditions across diverse research domains.

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About the product

HBSS (Hank's Balanced Salt Solution) is a salt-based buffer solution commonly used in cell culture and biological research applications. It provides a balanced ionic environment to maintain the pH and osmotic pressure of cell cultures. The solution contains various inorganic salts, including calcium, magnesium, and potassium, as well as glucose, to support cell viability and homeostasis.

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Market Availability & Pricing

Hanks' Balanced Salt Solution (HBSS) is an actively marketed product by Thermo Fisher Scientific under their Gibco™ brand. It is available in multiple formulations, including versions with or without calcium, magnesium, and phenol red. The price for a 500 mL bottle typically ranges from $26.65 to $27.65, depending on the specific formulation.

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Spelling variants (same manufacturer)

Hank’s balanced salt solution (HBSS) - 409 citations Hanks’ solution - 125 citations HBSS solution - 60 citations Balanced salt solution - 17 citations Hanks' salts - 17 citations Hanks’ Balanced Salts - 12 citations Hank solution - 6 citations Hanks solution (HBSS(−)) - 4 citations Salt Solution - 4 citations

The spelling variants listed below correspond to different ways the product may be referred to in scientific literature.
These variants have been automatically detected by our extraction engine, which groups similar formulations based on semantic similarity.

Product FAQ

How does Thermo Fisher Scientific's Hanks Balanced Salt Solution (HBSS) distinguish itself from similar cell culture media?

Thermo Fisher Scientific's HBSS is distinguished by its precise formulation, high-quality manufacturing standards, and consistent performance in cell culture applications. While alternative HBSS products exist from brands like Merck Group, our solution offers superior lot-to-lot consistency, minimal phenol red content, and optimized mineral salt composition for diverse cellular research needs.

What specific citation details should researchers use when referencing this HBSS in scientific publications?

What laboratory systems and reagents are most compatible with this HBSS?

What primary research domains utilize Thermo Fisher Scientific's HBSS?

What interesting scientific background underlies the development of HBSS?

9 510 protocols using «hanks balanced salt solution (hbss)»

Isolation of Intestinal Lamina Propria Cells

2025

The isolation of cells from small intestine lamina propria was performed as previously described³⁶. In summary, the terminal ileum (6 cm length) was prepared by removing Peyer’s patches. The intestine was longitudinally opened and subjected to a 30-minute incubation at 37 °C in HBSS (14170-088, Gibco) containing 5 mM EDTA, DTT (D9779, Sigma), and 10 mM Hepes (LM-S2030, Biosera). After thorough agitation and PBS washes to eliminate epithelial cells, the remaining tissue underwent digestion using 300 U/ml Collagenase XI (C7657, Sigma), 0.08 U/ml Dispase II (18538700, Roche), and 50 U/ml Dnase I (DN25, Sigma) for 40–60 minutes at 37 °C. The resulting cell suspension was filtered through a 70 µmstrainer, followed by centrifugation and resuspension in FACS buffer (PBS with 2% FBS). For stainings, 1–2 million cells/100 µlwere incubated with the following antibodies: anti-CD11c PeCy7 (117318, Biolegend), anti-CD11b APC (101212, Biolegend), anti-CD45 Alexa Fluor 700 (103128, Biolegend), anti-CD45 APC-Cy7 (103116, Biolegend), anti-EPCAM APC-Cy7 (118218, Biolegend), anti-Podoplanin PeCy7 (127412, Biolegend), anti-CD31 PerCP/Cyanine5.5 (102420 Biolegend), anti-B220 FITC (103206, Biolegend), anti-IgA PE (12420483, Invitrogen), anti-TCRβ FITC (11-5961-85, eBioscience), anti-CD81 Biotin, (13-0811-81, eBioscience), anti-Pdgfra BV605 (135916, Biolegend), anti- CD11B PE (557397, BD Pharmigen), anti-MHCII BV605 (107639, Biolegend), anti-Ly6G BV786 (740953, BD Pharmigen), anti-CD64 BV421 (139309, Biolegend), anti-CD24 APC/FIRE 750 (101840, Biolegend), anti-CD14 APC (123311, Biolegend) and anti-VCAM1 Alexa Fluor® 647 (Biolegend, 105712). As a secondary staining for anti-CD81, Alexa Fluor® 647 -Streptavidin (S21374, ThermoFisher) was used. For intracellular staining (against IgA) cells were fixed and permeabilized using the Fixation and Permeabilization Buffer Set (88-8824-00, eBioscience), according to manufacturer’s instructions. Propidium Iodide (P1304MP, Sigma), DAPI (D1306, Invitrogen), Zombie Aqua Fixable Viabiloty Kit (423101, Biolegend) or the Zombie-NIR Fixable Viability Kit (423105, Biolegend) was used for live-dead cell discrimination. Absolute number quantification was performed using Precision Count Beads (424902, Biolegend). Samples were analyzed using the FACSCanto II flow cytometer (BD), FACs Celesta (BD) or the FACSAria III cell sorter (BD) and the FACSDiva (BD) or FlowJo software (FlowJo, LLC).

Iliopoulou L., Tzaferis C., Prados A., Roumelioti F., Koliaraki V, & Kollias G. (2025). Different fibroblast subtypes propel spatially defined ileal inflammation through TNFR1 signalling in murine ileitis. Nature Communications, 16, 3023.

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Establishing Cell Culture Conditions

2025

The childhood B-cell Precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia RCH-ACV (RRID: CVCL_1851) cell line was obtained from Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH (DSMZ, German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany) and the adrenocortical carcinoma SW13 (RRID: CVCL_0542) cell line was obtained from American Type Culture Collection (ATCC). Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI) 1640 (AQmedia, Sigma-Aldrich) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS, Sigma-Aldrich), 20 mM HEPES (Gibco/Life Technologies), 1 mM sodium pyruvate (Sigma-Aldrich), 1× MEM non-essential amino acids (Sigma-Aldrich), and 1x Penicillin-Streptomycin (Sigma-Aldrich) was used. Cell lines were grown at 37 °C and 5% CO₂ to a cell density of ~1–2 million cells/mL. Cells were harvested at 500 × g for 3 min and washed twice with Hank’s Balanced Salt Solution (Gibco™ HBSS, no calcium, no magnesium, no phenol red).

Leo I.R., Kunold E., Audrey A., Tampere M., Eirich J., Lehtiö J, & Jafari R. (2025). Functional proteoform group deconvolution reveals a broader spectrum of ibrutinib off-targets. Nature Communications, 16, 1948.

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Toxin Internalization Assay Protocol

2025

Indicated cells were seeded in 12-well plates and incubated overnight to achieve ~90% confluency by the following day. Toxin fragments were then incubated with cells in either fresh media supplemented with serum or in Hanks’ balanced salt solution (HBSS) (Thermo Fisher Scientific, catalog no. 14025092) at the specified concentrations. This incubation occurred for 1 hour at 4°C on a rocker. Subsequently, cells were washed three times with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS).

Chen J., Goerdeler F., Jaroentomeechai T., Hernandez F.X., Wang X., Clausen H., Narimatsu Y, & Satchell K.J. (2025). Vibrio MARTX toxin binding of biantennary N-glycans at host cell surfaces. Science Advances, 11(15), eadt0063.

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Isolation of Primary Astrocytes from Murine Pups

2025

Brains from pups aged 4 days were extracted, and cortices were dissected for primary astrocyte culture preparation⁷⁸. Extracted tissue was digested in 0.25% of trypsin solution in HBSS (Gibco) for 30 min at 37 °C and mixed every 10 min. The supernatant containing trypsin was removed, and tissue was resuspended in 10 ml of prewarmed culture media (DMEM high glucose, 10% fetal bovine serum, 1% penicillin–streptomycin, 10 ng ml⁻¹ epidermal growth factor (Gibco) and 10 ng ml⁻¹ fibroblast growth factor (Gibco)). Digested tissue was dissociated by pipetting and passed through a 70 µm cell strainer (Miltenyi Biotec). The resulting cell filtrate was then plated in a six-well plate precoated with 5 µg ml⁻¹ poly-d-lysine (PDL; Millipore, A-003-E) at a dilution corresponding to one brain per well and incubated at 37 °C in 5% CO₂. Media was changed every 2–3 days. After 7 days in culture, the six-well plate was placed on an orbital shaker for 30 min at 180 rpm to remove microglia. After discarding the supernatant and replacing it with warm astrocyte media, the plate was shaken at 240 rpm for 6 h to remove oligodendrocyte precursor cells. Isolated astrocytes were removed from plates with TrpLE (Gibco) and transferred to T75 flasks precoated with PDL. Astrocyte identity was confirmed by gene expression and immunofluorescence staining. Cells seeded at a density of 2.5 × 10⁴ cells per cm² were used for experiments up to passage 1.

Dudek K.A., Paton S.E., Binder L.B., Collignon A., Dion-Albert L., Cadoret A., Lebel M., Lavoie O., Bouchard J., Kaufmann F.N., Clavet-Fournier V., Manca C., Guzmán M., Campbell M., Turecki G., Mechawar N., Flamand N., Lavoie-Cardinal F., Silvestri C., Di Marzo V, & Menard C. (2025). Astrocytic cannabinoid receptor 1 promotes resilience by dampening stress-induced blood–brain barrier alterations. Nature Neuroscience, 28(4), 766-782.

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Lymphoid and Lung Tissue Digestion

2025

Spleen, inguinal lymph nodes (iLNs), mediastinal lymph nodes (mdLN), auricular lymph nodes (auLN), and popliteal lymph nodes (pLN) were harvested in R10 medium. Spleen and LNs were digested for 10 min at 37 °C with 0.25 mg/ml Liberase TL (Roche) and 50 μg/ml DNaseI (Sigma Aldrich). Tumors, ears, and lungs were minced and incubated for 30 min in HBSS (Gibco®) shacking at 37 °C with 50 μg/ml DNaseI and 0.5 mg/ml Collagenase IV (Sigma) (tumors) or 0.25 mg/ml Liberase TL (Roche) (ears and lungs). Ears were passed through a 18 G syringe and squeezed through a 100 μm cell strainer (Corning). The rest of the tissues were squeezed through a 70 μm cell strainer (Corning). All tissues were re-filtered through a 40 μm cell strainer and spleen and lung subjected for 5 min to Red Blood Cell Lysis Buffer (Sigma).

Heras-Murillo I., Mañanes D., Munné P., Núñez V., Herrera J., Catalá-Montoro M., Alvarez M., del Pozo M.A., Melero I., Wculek S.K, & Sancho D. (2025). Immunotherapy with conventional type-1 dendritic cells induces immune memory and limits tumor relapse. Nature Communications, 16, 3369.

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