We are looking to cut down on plastic waste and costs of disposables and are interested in buying the reusable slide for the Countess II FL. Has anyone used this before? Is it easy to clean? does it hold up over time? Some models of old school hemocytometers are prone to filmy buildup over time, even when soaking between uses. I'd appreciate anyone's opinion who has used this item. https://www.thermofisher.com/order/catalog/product/A25750#/A25750
Thanks!
We've been using the resuable slides at my lab for a while now. We're mainly using them to count freshly isolated PBMC where we know viability is close to 100%. They're working well for counting viable cells via trypan blue exclusion. However, it's very hard to get absolutely all cells off of the slides (we thoroughly clean them with both distilled water and 70% EtOH after use). So upon re-use there will be some residual dead cells that lead to an overestimation of the number of dead cells in the sample that you want to count.
Try using a different wash method. 70% ethanol is good for sterilizing surfaces, but not the best for actually cleaning them. In fact it can cause somethings to become "fixed" to the glass. Using some soap along with the water goes along way.
They do seem to work OK, but I have found the reproducibility to get accurate counts is far less that the disposable slides, I suspect as the gap between the cover slip and slide is more variable with the reusable one that with the pre-cast disposable ones
There is a proven, 100% efficient technology available since 2017 which washes the disposable cell counter slides. makes cell counting cheap and reduces waste. You don't have to change your cell counter or convert to reuseable slides. if you want to check it out.
www.imraliinventions.com
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Anatomy
- Tissue