Hi everyone,
I'm studying the gelation process of certain bio-polymers. When I form the final gels and cut it into small pieces for observation under the Confocal microscope. This process seems to hamper my gel structure. Is there any other process wherein I could form the gels in accessories that could be directly used for observation under the microscope. Please bear in mind that I have to heat the gels to induce gelation, so the material needs to resistant to heat. I have read of quart glass dishes can anyone suggest anything else?
I am not sure what level of heat resistance is, but you can try some glass bottomed tissue culture dishes.
https://www.mattek.com/products/glass-bottom-dishes/
The optics of these are very good for confocal microscopy, so they should suit your needs. The company should be able to tell you more about heat resistance, or perhaps give you a sample to try it out yourself.
Also, you can try this imaging chamber, you would need to buy appropriate coverslips but then you should be able to form your gel right in this .
https://www.thermofisher.com/order/catalog/product/A7816
You would just need new coverslips each time you repeat your experiments, but the metal chamber is reusable and autoclaveable.
Thanks Timothy for the inputs.
I'll see what works best for my samples as I need to be heating my samples at 80C for 30 min.
Regards
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