Mini-incubator For Prolonged Cell Culture, MEA, And Hypoxia Studies Outside An Incubator

To mimic normal human body conditions in vitro, cells should be cultured in a biomimetic and controlled environment. Typically, living cells are cultured inside an incubator with 5% CO2 and atmospheric O2 concentration (~20%). However, this concentration is not physiologically relevant for most of the human tissues in vivo. For example, for the brain tissue, the normoxia (normal O2 concentration for this specific tissue) is from 0.5% to 7%, for eye from 1 to 5%, and for cancer cells it is near 0%. Moreover, it has been shown that low oxygen conditions can promote growth and influence differentiation of stem cells in vitro. Furthermore, constant culture conditions are difficult to maintain outside an incubator. For example, during the prolonged extracellular recordings with microelectrode arrays (MEA) altering gas concentrations, temperature variations, and evaporation are typical issues. That leads to the variation of pH and molecular concentrations of media. Therefore, to maintain the good culture conditions cells should be cultured in a biomimetic and controlled environment.
We have developed a cell culture platform that provides controlled environment for prolonged hypoxia/normoxia studies outside a traditional incubator, e.g. during the MEA recordings on MEA amplifier or on a glass plate on hot plate. The platform maintains the pH, temperature and constant gas concentration, for both 5% CO2 and hypoxia conditions. Truly hypoxic conditions can be maintained similarly as inside a commercial hypoxia chamber which was shown with HIF-1α induction of HeLa cells.