ADA is a

zwitterionic In chemistry, a zwitterion ( ; ), also called an inner salt or dipolar ion, is a molecule that contains an equal number of positively and negatively charged functional groups. : (1,2-dipolar compounds, such as ylides, are sometimes excluded from t ...

organic chemical

buffering agent A buffer solution is a solution where the pH does not change significantly on dilution or if an acid or base is added at constant temperature. Its pH changes very little when a small amount of strong acid or base is added to it. Buffer solution ...

; one of

Good's buffers Good's buffers (also Good buffers) are twenty buffering agents for biochemistry, biochemical and biology, biological research selected and described by Norman Good and colleagues during 1966–1980. Most of the buffers were new zwitterionic compoun ...

. It has a useful pH range of 6.0-7.2 in the physiological range, making it useful for

cell culture Cell culture or tissue culture is the process by which cell (biology), cells are grown under controlled conditions, generally outside of their natural environment. After cells of interest have been Cell isolation, isolated from living tissue, ...

work. It has a

pKa In chemistry, an acid dissociation constant (also known as acidity constant, or acid-ionization constant; denoted ) is a quantitative measure of the strength of an acid in solution. It is the equilibrium constant for a chemical reaction :H ...

of 6.6 with ΔpKa/°C of -0.011 and is most often prepared in 1 M

NaOH Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye and caustic soda, is an inorganic compound with the formula . It is a white solid ionic compound consisting of sodium cations and hydroxide anions . Sodium hydroxide is a highly corrosive base and alkali t ...

where it has a solubility of 160 mg/mL. ADA has been used in protein-free media for chicken embryo fibroblasts, as a

chelating agent Chelation () is a type of bonding of ions and their molecules to metal ions. It involves the formation or presence of two or more separate coordinate bonds between a polydentate (multiple bonded) ligand and a single central metal atom. These l ...

for H⁺, Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺, and for

isoelectric focusing Isoelectric focusing (IEF), also known as electrofocusing, is a technique for separating different charged molecules by differences in their isoelectric point (pI). It is a type of zone electrophoresis usually performed on proteins in a gel tha ...

in immobilized pH gradients. Its effects on dog kidney Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase and rat brain

GABA receptor The GABA receptors are a class of receptors that respond to the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), the chief inhibitory compound in the mature vertebrate central nervous system. There are two classes of GABA receptors: GABAA and ...

s have also been studied. ADA does, however, alter coloring in

bicinchoninic acid assay The bicinchoninic acid assay (BCA assay), also known as the Smith assay, after its inventor, Paul K. Smith at the Pierce Chemical Company, is a biochemical assay for determining the total concentration of protein in a solution (0.5 μg/mL to 1.5& ...

References

{{reflist Zwitterions Tertiary amines Dicarboxylic acids Buffer solutions