US 4,301,252 AGranted

Controlled environment incubator for light microscopy

OwnerFraser L. Baker, John H. Baumanninventors

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Abstract

A miniature, biological incubator for continuous light microscopic observation of cells in cell cultures under environmentally controlled conditions for use in conjunction with petri dishes or similar types of culture dishes, in which different covers are provided to accommodate different types of microscopes and magnification, the incubator being small enough to fit on a microscope stage and to have a sufficiently small internal volume to facilitate maintenance of a controlled atmosphere having stable temperature, humidity and mixture of gases therein and to permit rapid restoration of controlled environment lost during replacement of dishes or during changing of covers to suit particular microscopic observation. The chamber contains a means for humidifying the gases contained therein by evaporation from water-saturated absorbent pads of large surface area, plus a means for humidifying particular gaseous mixtures used to purge the chamber, utilizing at least one hollow fiber tube in intimate contact with water-saturated absorbent pads through which the purging gases are passed, the hollow fiber tube presenting to the purging gases a large wetted surface area resulting in efficient humidification of the purging gases.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A miniature incubator for light microscopes for use in conjunction with a culture dish, comprising a base platform, an outer peripheral wall extending upward from said base platform, said outer peripheral wall having an upper portion, said platform and said outer pheripheral wall providing an incubating chamber having an open end at said upper portion of said wall, cover means for closing said open end, means for nesting and retaining said cover means in said upper portion of said outer peripheral wall, comprising a peripheral recess formed in said upper portion, cover seal means located in said recess between said upper portion and said cover, thermal means for heating said miniature incubator, temperature sensor means for controlling the temperature of said incubator, said temperature sensor means being located within said incubating chamber on said base platform and in intimate contact with said base platform, means for locating said culture dish within said incubator on said base platform, means in said base platform for providing viewing access through the bottom surface of said culture dish, means in said cover for providing viewing access to the top surface of said culture dish, hollow fiber tube purging means in said incubator for conducting purging gases from outside said incubator into said incubator chamber, humidifying means in said incubator chamber for humidifying said gases and said incubator chamber, said hollow fiber purging tube means being in intimate contact with said humidifying means, walls of said hollow fiber purging tube means being suitably porous to permit transmission of humidity from said humidifying means to inside walls of said hollow fiber purging tube means thereby to humidify said gases passing therethrough, and means for attaching said miniature incubator to the stage motion controls of a microscope stage.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.