Instrument for electrically stimulated cell fusion

Institute of Biological Instrumentation has developed an instrument for electrically stimulated cell fusion, which can be used in gene engineering and biology. The instrument comprises two units: a chamber and controller. The chamber has a plastic body with a system of electrodes whereto the controller is connected. A biological object will be put into the chamber. The controller generates signals of special shape that act upon the biological object at the preset time intervals. It emits a cell-aligning sinusoidal signal with frequency of 150 kHz to 2 МHz and amplitude of up to 25 V. The sinusoidal signal can be generated within a time interval of 1 to 999 seconds. The duration of cell membrane punching pulse is 1 to 999 μs, its repetition period is 0.1 to 9.9 seconds. The pulse amplitude amounts up to 300 V, the number of pulses is 1 to 9. After punching, a healing signal is fed to the chamber electrodes; parameters of this signal are the same as those of the aligning signal whose amplitude decreases with time from that of the aligning signal to zero. Several specimens of the instrument have been manufactured and tested under real experimental conditions.