Braincubator™ Incubation System Extends Brain Slice Lifespan

In vitro brain slice preparations are instrumental in developing understanding of the nervous system. Current lifespan of an acute brain slice is limited to approximately 6-12 hours, which reduces potential experimentation time and leads to considerable waste of neural tissue. The Braincubator™ is an incubation device - developed by researchers in the Biomedical Engineering & Neuroscience (BENS) group at MARCS Institute, University of Western Sydney (UWS), Australia - that can keep brain slices viable for research for at least 36 hours. This is done by controlling the temperature and pH of the artificial cerebral spinal fluid in which the slices are incubated, while continuously passing the fluid through a UVC filtration system. The system is capable of maintaining extremely low bacterial levels.

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00:00:11 brain slices are among the most commonly used preparation in neuroscience today and are employed in a very wide variety of techniques addressing questions from the entire neuroscience spectrum however one of the major limitations in using brain slices is the short lifespan which is normally in the range of six to eight hours and therefore limits the

00:00:34 experimentation time the main reasons for the short life span of brain slices can be divided into two categories the first category is the external environment which includes changes in ph temperature oxygen and glucose level that impact cell viability

00:00:56 furthermore as the slices are typically maintained in a non-sterile environment they are environmentally defenseless and vulnerable to increased bacteria numbers that release endotoxin such as lps which also leads to cell death the second category is the internal properties which includes tissue deterioration and excitotoxicity that results from the

00:01:20 damage caused by the slicing procedure itself the brain keeper is an incubation system for brain slices that is capable of extending their viability from 6 hours to more than 36 hours the brain key better is capable of monitoring and controlling the external environment such as temperature carbon flow and ph of the acsf and also keeping

00:01:46 a sterile environment by reducing bacterial levels as it continuously passes the acsf through a uvc filtration system there are multiple benefits for using the brain cubator the first is that it provides viable tissue for two experimental days and therefore reduces the time spent preparing brain slices and the number of animals required for research

00:02:10 furthermore it allows monitoring incubation conditions and standardizing this artificial environment which will reduce the variability of results among different labs we are currently looking for funding to build a commercial brain ki better that will have additional capabilities of remotely controlling the external environment of brain slices and possibly extending the lifespan of

00:02:36 brain slices even further the brain cubetter will be an essential device in every neuroscience lab you