CO2 monitor for incubator - What do you guys do? - Suspicious cell stress/death (Oct/02/2007 )
I have been growing HUVECs for various experiments, but a lot lately now I've noticed seemingly random cell death in the middle of my experiments. It's not just one type of transfection or anything like that either. It seems random. At first they may seem just oddly shaped or there may be more floating material (dead cells probably) but then before I can finish my experiment, large numbers die. We have had problems with one of the incubators and the CO2 concentration, but for this incubator it always seems 5% CO2 when we look at it.
We would like to monitor the CO2 overnight now, however, and need to know the different ways of monitoring it. What type of detectors (chemical maybe or obviously electronic detectors) are commonly used for this? It would need to be something that either stores all the data (plot CO2 vs time o/n) or trips a "red flag" if the CO2 dips or increases momentarily (like maybe a chemical test). I know there are some expensive electronic monitoring devices but I don't have much experience working with the incubators and am not sure if there are other ways.
Thanks.
what makes you think it is the CO2 levels?? Is there a colour change in your media (I'm assuming you use media with an indicator in??)
We would like to monitor the CO2 overnight now, however, and need to know the different ways of monitoring it. What type of detectors (chemical maybe or obviously electronic detectors) are commonly used for this? It would need to be something that either stores all the data (plot CO2 vs time o/n) or trips a "red flag" if the CO2 dips or increases momentarily (like maybe a chemical test). I know there are some expensive electronic monitoring devices but I don't have much experience working with the incubators and am not sure if there are other ways.
Thanks.
Some of the incubators these days have DATALOGGERS i.e. RS Biotech/Innova incubators. You can see the CO2 concentration on their graphics. All you need to do is FYRITE your incubator at the beginning and end of your 24 hour period. The fyrite gadget tests the internal concentration of the incubator.....it's simple.
Kindest regards
Rhombus.
p.s. phenol red and it's ultimate colour is NOT the way to determine CO2 concentrations.
we had a CO2 sensor croak earlier in the summer. the symptoms beforehand were much like you describe - when you're familiar with your cells, you know when something is off 
our guages and dials always read 5%, that was the problem - it was the regulator and the sensor that went out of whack together. we had our facilities guy tinker with it a couple times while we monitored it closely with a fyrite tester to determine the real concentration. finally, we just had that part replaced. our incubators are older, but it was cheap and easy to replace because there were some old defunct incubators in storage at our facility. the tech was able to raid the parts from someone else's discards
now are cells are happy and healthy at the correct CO2 level
I'm not suggesting that phenol red is the correct way to determine CO2 levels, I am well aware that it is not. I was just wondering what lead assembler01 to the conclusion that it must be the CO2 level that is causing the problem, given that there are a variety of reasons for why the cells may not be behaving.