Hypoxia, where the body or localized regions of the body are deprived of adequate oxygen supply, occurs during numerous acute and chronic disease states. Examples include reduced blood flow during heart attack or stroke, and the oxygen-restricted microenvironment within a tumor. Though cells can be studied in vitro under similar oxygen-poor conditions using a hypoxia chamber glove box, the inefficiencies of traditional endpoint assays are exacerbated by the constraints of working inside the chamber. In contrast, an xCELLigence instrument run within a hypoxia chamber will continuously provide a real-time assessment of cell number, cell size/morphology, cell attachment quality, and cell migration/invasion without the need for intermittent manipulation/intervention by the researcher.
Key Benefits of xCELLigence:
- Data quantity: Automatic real-time data acquisition makes it possible to collect, with ease, significantly more data points than what is possible using traditional end point assays. This is especially true for hypoxia studies because manual acquisition of end points inside a hypoxia chamber is difficult and laborious.
- Data quality and reproducibility are significantly better than what is possible using end point assays.
- Time savings: Once cells are plated, data can be acquired continuously for anywhere from minutes to days/weeks without the need for hands-on time by the researcher.
All seven xCELLigence instruments are compatible with in vitro hypoxia studies.