Why DMSO is used as a control? Coming from a non-biology background, I've realised many academic papers on experiments use DMSO as like a control. This is an example: > KN-93, a specific inhibitor of CaMKII inhibits human hepatic stellate cell proliferation in vitro What make DMSO so special that so many scientists use it for their experiment and report their results? Why do we need it in the first place?

DMSO can be used as a solvent for a range of experiments. In these cases it makes sense to use the solvent as the control.