Synchroslice - Multiple Slice Evaluation System

General

Acute vital tissue sections like the hippocampal slice preparation have become a valuable tool in neuropharmacology and toxicology for evaluation of drug effects in the pharmaceutical industry. However, with a single standard experimental setup only a few tissue slices can be characterized within one day. A higher throughput of tissue sections, different drugs or concentrations is difficult and time consuming.

With the new SYNCHROSLICE system Lohmann Research Equipment overcomes this problem by electrophysiological evaluation in up to 8 tissue slices simultaneously. Single dose-response curves can be examined with a single loading of 8 slices in an interface or submerged chamber. Sections can be electrically stimulated and extracellular somatic and dendritic field potentials are recorded simulatenously with eight 2-fold microelectrodes. Various stimulation protocols like single pulse, double pulse, HFS, LFS or theta stimulation (for LTP/LTD experiments) are possible.

Electrode positions are visualized with an 8-fold CCD camera system. Drugs are applied via a 8-fold valve system including a multichannel peristaltic pump.

The SYNCHROSLICE software controls the complete experiment including stimulation, drug application, data acquisition and on-and offline analysis. Signal parameters like peak amplitudes, slopes, latencies, area under curves, etc. are determined online and displayed during the experiment. Routine viability checks guarantee a continous control of tissue healthyness. Cutoff criteria can be set by the customer to stop recordings from non viable slices.

All parameters, settings, experimental and tissue identifications or acquired data are stored on HD. Export functions allow a transfer of data into conventional spreadsheet and analysis programs.

The SYNCHROSLICE drug effect explorer was originally designed for the classical hippocampal slice preparation. However, other tissue slices from neocortex or other structures in the brain and even acute heart slices can be evaluated.

For more informations about the components please use the menu on the left or the links below
Hardware	Software	Add-ons	Configurator

Features:

A complete system for synchroneous evaluation of drug effect in 8 tissue slices (4-channel version also available), consists of:

16 x micromanipulators type Märzhäuser MM33 with tilting base 2 x base plate 600 x 400 mm (bxw) with brain slice chamber mounts and stands for micromanipulators.
2 x 4-channel brain slice chamber type LRE MSC-4, each with either submerged or interface mode inner wells (please specify with order); wells manufactured from Plexiglass or Teflon (specify with order); with temperature sensor and heating pad; chambers equipped with all necessary tubings and cables.
2 x Temperature controller type LRE LTR-2 for use with LRE brain slice chambers.
16-channel peristaltic pump (8-channel for interface chamber); digitally controlled via PC.
16-channel valve system with chemically inert Teflon valves for switching between control and test solutions (can be optional extended)
2 x 4-channel inspection camera systems with 8 CCD color cameras with 470 TV lines; ; 2 x quad video processor for switching between 4 CCD cameras pictures or for quad screen display of 4 cameras; 2x 17 inch TFT Video monitors with VGA and video input.
frame grabber board for recording slice pictures
8 x 2-channel headstages type MCS MPA-2; gain; input resistance > 1 gOhm;
FA-16 filter amplifier with fixed bandwidth of 0,1 Hz to 3 kHz;
STG-2008 online stimulator; computer-controlled via MC_Stimulus software; equipped with stimulation-isolation units.
16-channel USB2 data acquisition system; 16 bit resolution; max. acquisiton rate of 20 kHz per channel.
Synchroslice software package including data acquisition and online analysis; experimental control of peristaltic pump and 16-channel valve system.
8 x 2-fold recording electrodes (metal or pyrexglass)
8 bipolar stimulation electrodes
Standard Laptop PC with external 19 inch Monitor.
Complete system mounted in laboratory cabinet size approx: 200 x 80 x 120 cm (w x d x h)

for more informations please contact us