When it comes to the common instruments and equipment of the cell laboratory, there are mainly 10 types of microscopes, incubators, drying boxes, water purification devices, refrigerators, cell freezers, centrifuges, balances, sterilizers, and filters. Today’s article, first introduce the top 5 common instruments and equipment.

Common equipment 1: Microscope

The most common equipment in the cell laboratory is an inverted microscope, whose function is to grasp the growth of cells and observe whether they are contaminated. If the budget is sufficient, it can also be equipped with phase contrast microscopes, dissecting microscopes, fluorescence microscopes, and video recording systems to better observe, record, and photograph the growth of cells.

Common equipment 2: incubator

If it is necessary to culture the experimental cells in the cell laboratory in vitro, the relevant cells must be put into the incubator. Because in most cases, the most suitable temperature for cell survival is 37°C (temperature difference ±0.5°C). If the temperature is increased by 2°C, the cells can only survive for a few hours, and if it reaches 40°C, the cells will die quickly.

At present, the most common incubator in cell laboratories is a CO2 incubator, which has the advantage of being able to provide quantitative CO2 (concentration of 5%), keeping the pH of the culture fluid stable, and suitable for open or semi-open culture. Place a culture dish, culture plate or culture bottle for cell culture in the incubator. If a culture bottle is to be used, it is recommended to loosen the cap slightly to ensure aeration.

Common equipment 3: Drying box

The related instruments and utensils of the incubator need to be sterilized and dried before they can be used. Therefore, the cell laboratory must be equipped with a drying box. The common drying oven is a blast-type electric heating drying oven, which has the advantages of uniform temperature and better drying effect.

As for the use of the drying box, blowing and heating must be carried out at the same time. Stop blowing at 100°C to avoid scorching the paper or cotton wrapping the utensils and causing pollution. Do not open the door of the drying oven immediately after disinfection, but wait a few minutes to avoid damage to the utensils.

Common equipment 4: water purification device

Cell culture has high water quality requirements, so related water must be processed by a water purification device. Taking the preparation of various culture media and reagents for cell culture as an example, it is necessary to use distilled water three times, even if it is to rinse the utensils, use distilled water twice.

Common equipment 5: refrigerator

Refrigerators in the cell laboratory are divided into two types: ordinary refrigerators or freezers, low-temperature refrigerators and ultra-low-temperature refrigerators. Among them, the former is used to store culture fluid, saline and related culture items and short-term preservation of tissue specimens. The latter is used to store preparations that require cryopreservation of biological activity and long-term storage, such as enzymes and serum.

The next issue of the article will bring the common equipment of the cell laboratory (2), please pay more attention to it.