Patent Application
20070196913
The present invention relates generally to cell culture containers. More specifically, it relates to a device and method for saving cultured cells to microscope slides.
Cell culture has become one of the most important means in modern biotechnology. It can be classified into attached and suspended types of cultures. In attached cultures, pieces of tissues or dispersed cells attach to the bottom of a culture container under a layer of liquid culture medium, which enables researchers to perform their experiments.
The physical property of the bottom is one of the most important parameters effecting the behavior of attached cells in culture. Many cell types just do not grow well on certain types of bottoms, such as a glass bottom. Therefore, high quality culture containers are made with plastics, such as polystyrene.
Cell culture is a two-step process, a healthy culture, and a way to save the culture as permanent slide for microscope analysis. Tyndorf et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,922, teaches a plate for generating good cultures. But, Tyndorf et al has failed to demonstrate how to make a slide from the plate. MatTek Corporation, from its website, www.glass-bottom-dishes.com, teaches culture dishes with glass bottom. Unfortunately, MatTek sacrifices culture quality for making slides. Stevens et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,813, also teaches a culture bottom using microscope slide, which is usually made in glass. Stevens et al has failed to make his culture slide bigger for more applications. Stevens et al has further failed to simplify his culture slide. Glue is introduced to his culture, which is a positive addition to cultured cells.
A device and method for both cell culture and slide making are highly desired but remains unsolved.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a device and method for both cell culture and slide making.
The advance of the invention over prior arts can be summarized as follows:
a and 2b illustrate a preferred improvement of the multi-well culture plate.
a and 3b show how to form a slide using the detached bottom.
a and 4b show applications of the improvement to different dishes.
Detachment of plate bottom is a challenge. First, polystyrene bottom is strong and is not easy to break by hand. And the second, no disturbance of attached cells is acceptable.
The preferred improvement of present invention has addressed the challenge by teaching a detaching ring to reduced strength and a levering mechanism for force-enhancement.
a illustrates a preferred improvement showing how to make bottom 100 easily detachable. A notch 66, in a dimension of 3 mm deep and 3 mm wide, is distributed around edge of bottom 100, A region of notch 66 under bottom 100 is reduced to 0.3 mm in thickness, which is named as detaching ring 60. Detaching ring 60 controls a desired breaking line by a self-destruction under an external force. For generating a nice edge of bottom 100 after detachment, the vertical height of detaching ring 60 should be less than 0.5 mm.
It should be noticed that detaching ring 60 is still too sturdy for forced destruction if being pushed vertically from top or bottom. But it will be otherwise easily destructible if it is pushed horizontally from left or right utilizing a levering mechanism.
To make a detachment, the basic steps are:
Here wall 120 is used as a supporting point in the levering mechanism. The movement of key 150 breaks detaching ring 60 and pushes detached bottom 100 off the center, as shown in
a and 3b show how to make a slide. Detached bottom 100 looks like a circular disc with cells attached to one side. It can be used as a coverslip and mounted directly onto a glass slide 300, as shown in
Multi-well plates and dishes have a variety of diameters. But slides are fixed in one format. That is, some modifications should be made to adapt the invention in different embodiments.
a shows a detaching ring 410 being built between a bottom 400 and a wall 420 for multi-well plates. Gaps between neighboring wells can be used to support a lever for force enhancement. Alternatively, a cutting wheel can be used to break detaching ring 410.
Although the descriptions above contains specifications, it is apparent to those who skilled in the art that a number of other variations and modifications can be made to the invention without departing from its spirit and scope. Notch 66, for example, can be omitted, detaching ring 60 can be built in a any shape, such as a hexagon. A hexagon wrench then can be used for its detachment. Detaching ring 60 can also be built on lower portion of wall 120 instead of bottom 100, which can be detached by a cutting wheel. Therefore, the descriptions as set out above should not be constructed as limiting the scope of the invention but as merely providing illustration of the presently preferred embodiment of the invention.
