NaviCyte Horizontal Ussing System

The NaviCyte Horizontal chamber system consists of a heater/support block and up to six horizontal chambers. Chambers require the use of a supplied open or closed chamber cap into which either a Snapwell^TM culture cup or a tissue mounting ring may be fitted. Culture cups or tissues are mounted on a horizontal plane. Chambers have basolateral and apical inputs for attachment to perfusion lines, and in the closed configuration chambers can accept electrodes.

Single or multichannel setups

Chambers can be used singly as a stand-alone entity, or can be mounted into the heater/support block in sets of up to six chambers per block. The heater/support block provides chamber heating and is recommended even if using a single chamber. Inserts are easily exchanged in mounted chambers. The compact footprint (38.1 x 8.9 x 10.2 cm) of the heater/support block conserves lab bench space.

Open and closed chamber configurations are defined by the use of an open or closed chamber cap. Either cap completes the chamber and holds the culture cup or tissue ring into place. Both an open and closed cap is supplied with each chamber.

In the open configuration, the upper surface (usually the apical side) of the membrane is directly accessible, making the system suitable for drug transport studies or cytotoxicity testing of liquids or semi-solid materials. In the closed configuration, the membrane can be exposed to solutions, exposed to gases, perfused with gas, or perfused with liquid.

While optimized for diffusion-based assays, NaviCyte electrodes are available for making electrophysiology-based measurements from NaviCyte chambers. Electrodes can only be used with the NaviCyte Horizontal chamber in its closed configuration. The NaviCyte electrodes screw together for final assembly as shown in the image below.

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