Hypoxic Cell Culture System

Hypoxia In Vitro Is Not Easy

Research in gene expression, cell differentiation, and phenotype manipulation has established the important role of hypoxia in cell development. The precise control of oxygen levels in cell culture has been shown to be vital for reproducible, consistent, and definitive results. However, hypoxia in vitro is difficult to control

TRADITIONAL INCUBATORS ARE NOT PRACTICAL

For many cells, real hypoxia may be at O₂ levels below 1%. Most O₂/CO₂ incubators are not capable of producing O₂ levels this low and they consume excessive amounts of gas when doing so. Every time the incubator door is opened, room air flows in and hypoxic conditions are temporarily lost and have to be re-established. They only provide one hypoxic level at a time. Many oxygen-controlled incubators only have a few plates in them. The rest of the incubator is wasted. We offer upgrades for your incubators to enhance your hypoxia capabilities.

HYPOXIA GLOVE BOXES ARE RISKY

Most anaerobic bacteria glove box manufacturers have modified their heated anaerobic glove chambers for hypoxia cell culture. Hypoxia scientists are lured by the ability to process and culture cells at the same oxygen level. Good idea, but what happens when you take your cells to the microscope? The bigger problem is a fundamental design flaw. Bacteria chambers do not separate the incubation area from the processing area. Non-sterile items must be brought into the incubator to process every culture. All cultures sit right there! Contamination risk is extreme! These so-called ‘hypoxia workstations’ certainly are ‘work’ stations. That is, the work to repeatedly decontaminate them. Like incubators, you only get one oxygen level.

We offer all suitable upgrades to shore-up every shortcoming and meet any hypoxic challenge in any existing "hypoxia workstation".

Our SubChamber Systems make uninterruptible hypoxia easy. Inside a subchamber, you can move your culture undisturbed back and forth between incubator and any of our unique oxygen controlled glove boxes. Match O₂ level in glove box with that of the culture chamber. Work with your cultures in the glove box without any disturbance in the O₂ concentration.

EXPANSION PROTOCOL - Primary cultures and other low cell population density do best under low oxygen gas phase when they start, but when they grow, they are bound to need more. You can design any ramp up in oxygen, and consistently repeat it. With a click of the mouse.

ACUTE/INTERMITTENT HYPOXIA - Hypoxic stress can model components of many severe diseases such as heart attacks, strokes, asthma, or epilepsy. Frequency, duration and degree of drops are all adjustable.

UNINTERRUPTIBLE HANDS-ON HYPOXIA FOR INCUBATORS

Many hypoxia regulated genes are immediately turned off by brief exposures to ambient air. Handling your cultures in glove boxes with O₂ control avoids this problem.

The I-Glove is a glove box for your incubator. Your incubator goes inside and the same conditions inside the incubator are now controlled outside the incubator. Any CO₂ or O₂/CO₂ incubator can now provide deep hypoxia for your cells. Safely manipulate your cultures in the processing chamber and then return them to the incubator when finished. There is less danger of contaminating all of your cells as in standard glove boxes with shared incubation and processing space. Hypoxic conditions go undisturbed and virtually no gas is consumed. You can still add any of our SubChamber Systems to the incubator inside and benefit from the power and versatility they provide.

HYPOXIA WORKSTATION UPGRADE PATH

To eliminate the risk caused by incubating and processing cells in the same humid place, upgrade your workstation with an integrated incubation chamber module and continue to process in your workstation. Or integrate an additional processing module and continue to incubate in your workstation. Even add a microscope chamber with hypoxia control. All the other pieces can be integrated as well.

HYPOXIA PUZZLE SOLVED

Where did all these upgrades come from? Over 30 years of meeting hypoxia challenges for thousands of hypoxia scientists worldwide.

THE XVIVO: ALL THE PIECES TO THE HYPOXIA PUZZLE

After upgrading other equipment for 25 years, BioSpherix reinvented the concept of cell culture incubation and processing. The result is the XVIVO, the only closed-hood cell culture incubation and processing system which provides full-time, uninterruptible optimization of hypoxic conditions.

This closed-hood design takes the uncertainty created by random exposures to ambient air, its effect on gene expression and process control, out of the equation.

ALL OF THE PIECES IN ONE PACKAGE

Available features include multiple, independent, fully-integrated incubators with dynamic programmable hypoxic control. Automatically run any hypoxic profile. Simultaneously run as few or as many protocols as you need. This feature accelerates your research. Dissolved pericellular O₂ monitoring can be incorporated for better accuracy. Modular interconnected processing chambers can accommodate microscopes, centrifuges, cell sorters, bioreactors… whatever suits your needs. Your cells are never exposed to suboptimal conditions. Closed-hood incubation also greatly reduces the risk of contamination because the cells are never exposed to the outside environment or the technicians operating the equipment.

The XVIVO SYSTEM offers real-time monitoring with internet access to datalogs

and alarms. Full-time datalogging: a complete set of documents that prove the conditions your cells were exposed to. This may lead to a quicker and higher percentage of grant approvals.

UNLIMITED SCALABILITY AND CUSTOMIZATION

You don’t have to compromise your research…or your budget. Get the capability you need today and the upgradeability for your research needs tomorrow. Whether it’s upgrading your current equipment, or creating your own BioSpherix modular hypoxic research system, we offer all the pieces to the hypoxic puzzle.

ALL THE PIECES TO THE HYPOXIA PUZZLE

Other vendors have only one or two pieces of the hypoxia puzzle. Some have the hypoxia incubator. Some have the hypoxia glove box. Some have the hypoxia flush box. Some have a dissolved O₂ analyzer. Only BioSpherix offers all the pieces. They’re integrated and modular. Start out small, and upgrade as needed. Every piece works perfectly with every other piece. Again, all the pieces to definitively solve the hypoxia puzzle.

Since 1982 we’ve been making unique tools for biomedical scientists. Our tools help you manipulate and control biologically active gases (O₂, CO₂, NO, CO, O₃, H₂S, etc.) in both in vitro and in vivo applications. We build controllers, chambers, partial systems, and complete systems. We can even "soup up" any existing third party equipment. If necessary, we can customize to exactly fit your needs. We guarantee solutions.