JPS5953024B2 - Centrifuge tube residual liquid suction device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a residual liquid absorption device for removing residual liquid that accumulates at the mouth of a centrifugal tube when discarding a supernatant liquid after centrifugation in an automatic culture apparatus.

In all fields such as medicine, biology, pharmacy, and agriculture,
Biological tissue and cell culture techniques are essential basic experimental techniques for conducting research at the cellular level.

However, subculturing biological tissues and cells is technically difficult, and stable culture strains have not been obtained.

However, recently, with the spread of gas culture technology in incubators, that is, culture technology in a specific gas atmosphere, special cells that were previously considered difficult to grow, such as those of the liver, nervous system, and pituitary gland, have become more popular. Even subculture is becoming possible.

The main points of these current cell techniques are described below.

First, in order to carry out subculture, a predetermined number of cells are diluted with a culture solution in a culture container such as a Petri dish, and the cells are cultured stationary in an incubator maintained in a predetermined atmosphere.

In order to check the culture state after a predetermined period of time has elapsed, a predetermined culture container is removed from the incubator and the degree of cell proliferation is examined using a microscope.

When it is confirmed that the target cells have grown to the full capacity of the container, the cells are transferred to a sterile clean bench, the culture solution in the culture container is aspirated with a pipette, and the culture solution is discarded. The remaining cells are washed by injecting buffer, and the buffer used for this washing is again aspirated and discarded.

Next, an enzyme such as trypsin is injected to release the cells that have settled and proliferated on the floor of the culture container from the culture container, and the cells are left for several minutes and then discarded.

After allowing it to stand for a few more minutes, the culture solution is injected.

This culture solution has the effect of stopping the action of trypsin.

After injecting the culture solution, stir and transfer to a centrifuge tube for centrifugation.

Aspirate and discard the centrifuged supernatant.

Next, the culture solution is injected and stirred to resuspend the cells, and the resuspended cell suspension is dispensed in fixed amounts into new culture containers.
Furthermore, a culture solution is injected to a predetermined concentration.

The culture container in which the dilution and dispensing operation has been completed in this way is taken out from the clean bench, transferred to an incubator maintained at a predetermined atmosphere, and left to stand still to proceed with the culture again.

However, the method described above has the following drawbacks.

One of them is that in order to check the proliferation state of tissues or cells using a microscope, it is necessary to frequently take out the culture container from the incubator to the outside air.

For this reason, culture conditions may suddenly change when the cultured material is removed from a predetermined environmental condition such as gas atmosphere, temperature, humidity, etc., resulting in subtle changes in the cultured tissue or cells.

Also, since it comes in contact with the outside air, it is susceptible to contamination by bacteria.

In this way, it is directly affected by changes in environmental conditions and the contamination of various bacteria.

Next, based on the results of microscopic observation, the technician manually performs the above-mentioned subculture operation in a clean bench, so the technician's subculture operation may have a direct effect on the tissue or cells. .

In other words, this shows that it is not possible to perform standardized culture under certain conditions with such conventional subculture operations.

The tissue or cells cultured will also depend on the experience and skill of the technician.

This means that it is difficult to standardize and unify the culture technology itself.

For this reason, even when researchers conduct research on the same topic, it is often seen that researchers come to completely opposite conclusions.

Furthermore, because it takes a considerable amount of time to train technicians equipped with these cultivation techniques, there is a shortage of personnel, and researchers are unable to devote their full efforts to their original research, leading to a lack of focus on culturing techniques for branches and leaves. The reality is that you have to spend a lot of energy.

From the above, we can prevent contamination of outside air by conventional methods, eliminate the influence of human manipulation,
Further, automatic culture apparatuses are being developed for the purpose of automatically subculturing standardized tissues or cells by standardizing and unifying each operation in subculture.

In such an automatic culture device, when the supernatant liquid is discarded after the above-mentioned centrifugation operation, residual liquid may accumulate at the mouth of the centrifuge tube, and this may flow back into the centrifuge tube or hold the centrifuge tube. It may contaminate the holder.

The present invention provides a suction device for suctioning and removing residual liquid accumulated at the mouth of a centrifuge tube when discarding a supernatant liquid after centrifugation from the centrifuge tube.

The specific contents of the centrifuge tube residual liquid absorbing device of the present invention will be explained below based on the drawings. In FIG. is fixed.

This shaft 4 is rotatably supported by a support plate 5 and is configured to be rotated by a motor up to a stopper 5a attached to the support plate 5.

In FIGS. 2 and 3, the waste liquid disposed of in a waste liquid tank 6 is discharged from a discharge port 6a through a waste liquid pipe.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a suction device, which is composed of a tube 8 and a cylindrical fitting 9 to which the tube 8 is fixed.This fitting 9 is fixed to the waste liquid tank 6 and one end thereof is connected to the suction device.

When discarding the supernatant liquid of the centrifuge tube 1 in the waste liquid tank configured as above, rotate the shaft 4 to which the holder presser 3 is fixed and remove the centrifuge tube 1, the tip of which is partially shown in Figure 3. Dispose of it as it is.

At this time, as described above, the mouth of the centrifugal tube is brought into contact with the tip of the tube 8 of the suction device 7.

Therefore, when the state shown in FIG. 3 is reached, if the suction device is activated to perform suction, the remaining liquid adhering to the mouth of the centrifugal tube will be suctioned into the tube 8 and removed and discarded.

As explained above, the residual liquid absorption device of the present invention is capable of completely removing residual liquid that adheres to the mouth of the centrifuge tube by suctioning it from the tube when discarding the supernatant liquid after centrifugation. Therefore, there is no risk that this residual liquid will flow back into the centrifuge tube or adhere to the holder etc., causing the proliferation of various bacteria.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a mechanism for disposing of waste liquid in a centrifugal tube, FIG. 2 is a plan view of a waste liquid tank equipped with a suction device of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view thereof. 1... Centrifugal tube, 2... Centrifugal tube holder, 3... Holder holder, 6... Waste liquid tank, 7... Absorption device .

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a device for disposing waste liquid in a centrifuge tube into a waste liquid tank, a tube is arranged in the waste liquid tank and whose tip is positioned at the mouth of the centrifuge tube when disposing of waste liquid in the centrifuge tube. A residual liquid absorption device for a centrifugal tube, characterized in that the residual liquid adhering to the mouth of the centrifugal tube is suctioned and removed through the tube.