Design For The Programmable Multichannel Perfusion System

In patch clamp experiments, for measuring the activities of live cells in various physiological environments, it is indispensable to perfuse a wide range of drugs to live cells. After experiments, the cells should be washed entirely with drug-free buffer, ensuring that the cells return to natural condition. All the operations are performed manually by experimenter beforetime, resulting in the inaccuracy for the time of drug addition as well as distracting the experimenter. In foreign countries, mature local-perfusion devices have been launched, for example, VM Series of ALA Company. But in China, the corresponding research or product is still vacant.Considering this case, we developed a multichannel perfusion system that fulfills the whole-automation programmable operation for the process of applying drugs to live cells. The system implemented four operating modes, enabling the experimenter to finish the drug-addition operation exactly and efficiently based on the particular experiment demand. Besides, the host software has lively graphic user interface, wherein the process of drug perfusion can be dynamically simulated and displayed in screen, making the operation very easy and convenient. The software is an MFC-based application of Windows operating system, and makes use of the object-oriented programming method, the multithread technology and the multimedia timer technology. Using the above advanced method and technology improved developing efficiency greatly and featured good reusability and maintainability of the software.Verified by the experiments and testing, this system features the accurate drug-perfusion and stable running, holds a broad foreground. It is not only applied in the patch clamp experiment but also in other physiological experiments requiring the drug-addition and perfusion process for live cells and tissues.