No More Water Baths! Simplify Hepatocyte Thaws and Eliminate Contamination
- Test Systems & Methods
- April 3, 2018
- Michael Millhollen, Dr. Chris Bohl
XenoTech has patented technology that eliminates the need for the water baths that are traditionally required to thaw cryopreserved hepatocytes. By removing water baths in or near culture hoods and incubators, a significant source of tissue culture contamination can be decreased or even eliminated.
Traditional cryopreserved hepatocyte vials need to be submerged in a 37°C water bath in order to partially melt the cells and release them from the vial. Hepatocyte pellets prepared with XenoTech’s patented CryostaX® technology can be taken directly from nitrogen storage and simply poured into pre-warmed thaw medium, inverted, then spun. See an excerpt from our Hepatocyte Thawing Demo Video below.
In addition to negating potential contamination, researchers have stated that they enjoy the increased efficiency gained by removing the unnecessary step of having to hold and swirl vials in a water bath while checking to see if the cells have sufficiently thawed to be released from the vial. And since there is no need to thaw the hepatocytes in order to get them out of the vial, the danger of “over-thawing” and cell damage is removed. Customers have expressed increased confidence in using CryostaX® hepatocytes because they have reduced or eliminated variability due to differences in scientists’ skill levels and experience.