Ham's F-12

Ham's Nutrient Mixture F-12 (Ham's F-12) is a variant of Ham's Nutrient Mixture Ham's F-10 (Ham's F-10) and was originally developed for the serum-free cell culture of Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells. Ham's F-12 is a basal medium with a wide variety of nutrients. The optimized nutrient composition of the medium facilitates efficient attachment and growth of individual cells and enables the establishment of homogeneous cell cultures with improved reproducibility.

In addition, Ham's F-12 has proven to be the preferred medium for the Clonal Toxicity Assay (CTA). The CTA is performed to evaluate the cytotoxic effect of substances on cells and helps to establish toxicological profiles. Ham's F-12 can be used for serum-free cell culture of CHO cells.

Since it contains no proteins, lipids or growth factors, it should be mixed with 10 % fetal calf serum (FBS) for cell culture of other mammalian cells.