VenaFlux Solutions mimic human blood vessels
The circulatory system contains many different types of blood vessels which delivers blood cells, nutrients, oxygen, carbon dioxide and hormones to all parts of the body. Blood vessels play a huge role in many medical conditions such as:
VenaFlux Solutions comprise packages to suit all budgets, with our Starter kit including a precision microfluidic pump, a microenvironmental chamber to hold the biochips which contain engineered microcapillaries and cell analysis software; to Pro and Elite versions including high-end fluorescent microscopes with a digital camera. The VenaFluxAssay software integrates the microfluidic pump, microscope and camera resulting in a complete automated high-throughput flow assay system for shear stress experiments.
APPLICATIONS
HOW DOES IT WORK?
How does VenaFlux mimic human blood vessels?
The microcapillaries of Vena8 Fluoro+ and Vena8 Endothelial+ biochips resemble the arterial, venous and capillary blood vessesls where blood interaction with clotting factors can be studied in vitro under shear stress.
What is shear stress?
Blood flows in the arteries, veins and capillaries at different shear stresses. Shear stress is the frictional force generated by blood flow in the blood vessel - it is the force that the blood exerts on the vessel wall, expressed in force-area unit (typically dynes/cm2).
Whole blood: only for shear rates > 50s^-1
Cellix's precision microfluidic Mirus Evo pump and ExiGo pump deliver cell samples or whole blood at constant or variable shear stresses into the microcapillaries of the Vena8 Fluoro+ or Vena8 Endothelial+ biochips. This mimics in vivo physiological shear stress.
Mirus Evo connection to Biochip
Exigo connection to Biochip
Cell Imaging and Image Capture
The biochip is placed in a temperature-controlled micro-environmental chamber to mimic physiological conditions. This chamber sits on the stage of an inverted microscope with digital camera attached. The microscope and camera provide automated image/video acquisition which enables the study of blood flow dynamics, for exmamples haemostasis, leukocyte-endothelial inflammation studies etc.
Cell Analysis
Image Pro Premier is a cell analysis software program that analyses the images captured with the microscope and digital camera. Examples of analysis include:
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Thrombosis studies: the area coverage of the thrombi in the microcapillaries is measured, i.e. the number of individual thrombi and aggregates are established.
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Inflammation studies such as leukocyte-endothelial interaction assays: leukocyte movement, rolling velocity, adherence and transmigration are investigated using the software.
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