BioFlex® Culture Plates

Flexible-bottomed culture plates that work with the Flexcell® Tension System to provide a mechanical load regimen to cells in monolayer (2D).

• 6-well culture plate with total growth surface area of 57.75 cm2 (or 9.62 cm2/well)
• Rubber membranes are optically clear for direct viewing of cells with an inverted or upright microscope
• Covalently bonded matrix surfaces: Amino, Collagen (Type I or IV), Elastin, Pronectin® (RGD), and Laminin (YIGSR)
• Comes with untreated surface for those labs that want to use their own ECM coating protocol
• Available individually or in case quantity of 40 plates

Applications of BioFlex® Culture Plates

• Mechanical Load - use with Flexcell® Tension System to research the effects of equibiaxial tensile strain on cells in vitro
• Softer Substrate - provides a softer substrate for cell growth (when compared to standard plastic culture dishes) which better mimics in situ conditions for some cell types like trabecular meshwork cells (see Aga et al. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 55(9):5497-509, 2014)
• Lung Injury Models - Used to understand the impact of ARDS, COPD, COVID-19 related pulmonary injuries by simulating "cytokine storm", hyper-tension and hyperventilation to cells in vitro (See Huang et al., Am J Respir Crit Care Med., 195(5):639-65, 2017; Ke et al.,Mol iol Cell.30(8): 959–974

• Traumatic Brain Injury - can be used in studies looking at traumatic injury in astrocytes and neurons, where the injury is produced with a Cell Injury Controller that controls a burst of gas which deforms the BioFlex® membrane creating large biaxial strains (see Ellis et al. J Neurotrauma 12 325–339, 1995; Ahmed et al. J Neurochem 74(5):1951-1960, 2000; Augustine et al. Neuroscience 274:1-10, 2014)

HT BioFlex® Culture Plates

High throughput flexible-bottomed culture plates used with Flexcell® Tension Systems to apply up to 8% equibiaxial strain to cells in monolayer culture.

• 24-well culture plate with total growth surface area of 37.47 cm2
• Strain is applied to cells grown on the flexible membrane of 24-well plate in the same manner as with cells grown on 6-well BioFlex® culture plates.
• Covalently bonded matrix surfaces: Untreated, Amino, Collagen (Type I or IV), Elastin, Pronectin® (RGD), and Laminin (YIGSR)
• Available in black or white
• Plates compatible with the 24-well HT baseplate and gaskets. Plates do NOT fit in the standard BioFlex® baseplate and gaskets
• Available individually or case quantity of 40 plates

work with flexcell tension system

Flexcell® Tension Systems are patented, computer-regulated bioreactors that apply cyclic or static strain to cells cultured in vitro.

flexcell designed Flexcell® Tension Systems to help investigators analyze biochemical changes in response to tensile load on a variety of cell culture applications, including muscle, lung, heart, vascular vessels, skin, tendon, ligament, cartilage, and bone.

flexcell Tension Systems work with UniFlex® (Uniaxial strain), BioFlex®, HT BioFlex® (Equibiaxial strain), Tissue Train® and CellSoft® BioFlex® culture plates.

flexcell cell stretching bioreactor systems are great for the stimulation of cells in cell culture using mechanical strain. Using our pneumatic stretching protocol system instead of a motor-driven or electrical system allows you to avoid any confounding vibrational strain, or electronic (E), or magnetic fields (B).

A computer-regulated bioreactor that uses vacuum pressure and positive air pressure to apply cyclic or static strain to cells cultured on flexible-bottomed culture plates.

• Applies a defined, controlled, static or cyclic deformation to cells growing in 3D or monolayer
• Allows users to simulate in vivo tissue strains and frequencies in vitro
• State-of-the-art digital valve automatically regulates vacuum pressure and positive air pressure for specified strain regimen
• Mimics in vivo conditions in cells from muscle, lung, heart, vascular vessels, skin, tendon, ligament, cartilage, and bone.
• FlexSoft® FX-6000™ software allows for multiple frequency, amplitude and waveform changes to be programmed in one regimen
• Compatible with Windows 10
• Use Bioflex® culture plates with cylindrical loading posts to apply equibiaxial strain
• Use Uniflex® culture plates with Arctangle® loading posts to apply uniaxial strain
• Gradient strain or unconstrained distention achieved by removing loading stations
• Drives up to 4 Flexlink® Controllers with 1 FX-6000T™ Tension System

• Available waveforms: static, sinusoidal, heart stimulation, triangular, square and custom