NaviCyte Vertical Ussing System

A complete NaviCyte vertical chamber system is comprised of up to six vertical chambers, a heated base assembly, a gas manifold, and (optionally) a data acquisition system. The standard base can hold up to six chambers and the included 12 channel gas manifold provides air regulation to both sides of each chamber. The included heater block allows for temperature control when used with a thermocirculator.

While well optimized for diffusion-based studies, the use of NaviCyte electrodes allows for electrophysiological membrane resistance measurements. Navicyte chambers (with the exception of the Snapwell) do not use inserts and the vertical line has 14 different chamber types available.

Single or Multichannel Setups

Chambers can be used individually as a stand-alone entity, or can be mounted in quantity into the base assembly. The base assembly provides chamber heating and associated gas manifold allows up to six experiments to be run in parallel. The compact design (38.1 x 10.2 x 12.7 cm) of this setup conserves valuable bench space.

Heater Base

The standard heater block base provides efficient temperature control of the chambers. Temperature is regulated by use of an external, user supplied thermocirclator.

Gas Manifold

The 6-chamber (12-channel) gas manifold distributes gas to the chambers where media circulation is generated by a gas-lift process.

NaviCyte Vertical chambers are primarily designed for work with excised tissue segments. Chambers are two piece assemblies held together by a high spring-tension retaining ring that insures leak free operation.

Tissues are affixed between the opposing faces of two half-chambers using a series of pins that surround the chamber aperture. Chambers are available with both circular and oblong openings of various sizes.

The optimal choice of opening will depend on the size and type of tissue under study. For example, an oblong opening can increase the effective sample surface area for an intestinal tissue.

The chamber aperture diameter designates the main opening to which buffer makes contact with the membrane. Generally speaking, you select an aperture opening at least 2 mm smaller (1 mm all the way around) than the tissue dimensions to permit the pins to impale the tissue without tearing.

The Snapwell^TM chamber is specifically designed for use with Snapwell^TM culture inserts from Corning Costar. This chamber accepts the lower section of the insert, which contains the cultured cell monolayer.

While optimized for diffusion-based assays, NaviCyte electrodes allow electrophysiology-based measurements with NaviCyte chambers. Standard volume chambers require the use of electrode caps for proper electrode placement. NaviCyte electrodes screw together for final assembly as shown in the image to the right.

The NaviCyte Vertical Ussing system is compatible with electrophysiological epithelial transport measurements and uses UssingChart data acquisition. This package includes an amplifier, a digitizer, software, and cables. You can view details on the UssingChart Data Acquisition webpage.

Navicyte Vertical Ussing Chamber System and DAQ Expandability

This Navicyte Vertical Ussing system can be scaled by adding chambers and expanding the UssingChart DAQ.
The Pricing and Ordering tab of this page lists the Chamber System and the UssingChart Data Acquisition packages.
Information regarding increasing or upgrading the number of DAQ channels on any existing UssingChart package can be found on the UssingChart Data Acquisition webpage.