2.7 Maintenance & Monitorization
The neurons on a chip are incubated in darkness for 22 days in vitro
(DIV) under controlled temperature (29°C) and humidity (70%). After
seven days it is needed to refill the microfluidic system with another
syringe. The used workflow is estimated from a previous work in the
study of neural network formation on top of typical plate cultures.
The data reported in this study correspond to 2 cultures grown under the
same conditions. Culture visualization and Network process
monitorization are performed using a charge-coupled device camera
(DSFi1, Nikon) mounted on a phase-contrast microscope (Eclipse TiS,
Nikon) with a 10x air objective (Achromat, ADL, NA 0.25) and an
automated motorised XYZ stage controller. Mosaic images are captured in
a daily basis with the large image method implemented in NIS-Elements
software, which does automatic blended stitching with an overlap of
25%.