Dulbecco’s Phosphate Buffered Saline (DPBS) is a balanced salt solution (BSS) used for the handling and culturing of mammalian cells. DPBS buffer is used to irrigate, wash, and dilute mammalian cells while maintaining osmotic balance. It provides water and inorganic ions essential for normal cell metabolism. DPBS with calcium and magnesium facilitates cell binding and clumping. Dulbecco′s PBS without these ions can be used to wash and rinse suspended cells. Phosphate buffering maintains the pH in the physiological range.

Dulbecco′s Phosphate Buffered Saline has been used:

• for the dilution of fresh red blood cells to study the trapping of red blood cell aggregate.
• to wash the wells of a microtiter plate.
• to wash the cells before resuspending them in lysis buffer for DNA isolation.
• as a component of embryo holding medium for vitrification of embryos.