2011
Volume 11, Number 2, pp. 86–90
Open-type microchamber for microsurgery and nanosurgery of a single cell using high-resolution microscopy
V.A. Nikitin, P.A. Grigoriev and M.G. Nikitina
Department of Reception Mechanisms, Institute of Cell Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institutskaya 3, 142290 Pushchino, Moscow Region, Russia
We have fabricated and tested several variants of an open-type microchamber for micro- and nanosurgical reconstruction of a single cell. The main advantages of this microchamber are: (1) quick and safe insertion of microtools into the single cell and the possibility to use straight microtools; (2) open access to the cells to be manipulated to facilitate change and/or bringing other cells or replacing the medium without repeated introduction of microïnstruments into the field of the microscope; and (3) the possibility of simultaneous use of many microïnstruments. The chamber is simple in design, economic in manufacture, and meets the major requirements for imaging and maintenance of the fundamental environmental factors that maintain cell viability.
Keywords embryonic cloning, microchamber, nanosurgery, nuclear transfer, single cell microsurgery, somatic cloning