|
Single Muscle Cell Tester |
|
|
|
Written by Lisa J Fulghum
|
|
WPI now offers the Scientific Instruments Heidelberg (SI-H)
Micro-Tweezer, a single cell muscle tester with a tweezer tip of
20microns that lets you hold a single muscle cell.
Micro-Tweezer,
designed to work with the SI-H product line of muscle testing
equipment, allows you to securely hold single muscle fibers (as shown
in the image below) without damaging the cells. On one side the
Micro-Tweezers are integrated in a highly sensitive force transducer.
On the other side the Micro-Tweezer is integrated (via a control box)
into a piezo nanomotor (if needed) or a standalone tweezer.
A
hollow metal tube with two tapered tweezer tips of custom design in a
closed position has a thin, stainless steel rod running through the
center of it. When the rod is pushed towards the tip using the control
box, the fingers of the tip open to allow the tweezers to grasp the
muscle fiber. As the stainless steel rod retracts, the tweezers close
and securely hold the fiber. The unique control box of the
Micro-Tweezer, combined with the nanomotor, lets you control the
distance
between the tweezers. With microscopic cells, you need
tweezers that will move as little as a few microns at a time with
nanometer precision and stability, and the ingenious SI-H
Micro-Tweezers are designed to do just that.
Living cells
disintegrate on contact with bare metal, so the Micro-Tweezer are
coated with a biologically friendly polymer. The complete system,
including micromanipulators for course movement, can be adapted to an
inverted microscope to create an advanced single cell force/length
research unit.
Specifications
The complete system includes two Micro-Tweezers, two nanomotors, two force transducers, two manipulators and the control box.
Micro-Tweezer
● 20μm tipped jaws
● Remote control open/close
● Flexible mounting on existing micromanipulators
Nanomotor
● Piezo-based movement
● 20nm precision, 200mm travel
● Remote control via analog input
Force Transducer
● KG series type 7A
● 0-5mN, 200pN resolution
● Integrated anti-resonance circuit
Muscle Tester Data
The following data shows the twitch and train responses of a single muscle fiber held with the Micro-Tweezer.
Electrically evoked force and Ca2+ transients in single enzymatically dissociated FDB myofibers
 ● MagFluo4 AM loaded FDB myofibers
● Single intact myofibers mounted between Micro-Tweezer
● Confocal line scan imaging perpendicular to myofiber axis
● Field Simulation
Unpublished data: C.W. Ward and W.J. Lederer, Univ. Maryland Baltimore and Univ. Maryland Biotechnology Institute
|
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, 20 August 2009 )
|
