Lever Tissue Press

The Lever Tissue Press prepares tissue as an initial mincing step preceding mechanical homogenization (cell disruption) or preceding single cells isolation from solid tissue by digestion of  extracellular connective matrix with proteolytic enzyme. The press eliminates tedious chopping of tissue into little pieces with a scissors or scalpel and produces much smaller tissue pieces.  Unlike many other tissue dispersion/blending devices, no buffer is added in its operation.

Tissue processed in this press must be "soft", relatively non-fibrous and have high water content.  Acceptable examples are muscle, brain, liver, plant fruits, and some plant roots and tubers.  If the tissue is fatty or partially fibrous, manually trim off the tough or fatty parts before pressing.  Fibrous tissue will interfere with the passage of the soft tissue through the press and lower the yield of dispersed cell material.  Unacceptable tissues are skin, hide, connective tissue, woody or fibrous plant stems, many mature seeds and all dried tissues.

Operating Instructions:

1)  Retract the piston of the Lever Tissue Press from its stainless steel "can".  Add 1 to 10 g of fresh tissue into the cavity of the "can" and insert the piston back into position.

2)  Gripping the two levers, force the piston down the can.  Scrape the dispersed tissue protruding from the bottom of the can with a knife or scalpel.  Depending on the amount of connective or fibrous tissue present in the sample, the yield of dispersed tissue will vary from 20-95%.

Special App! Disaggregation of tissue for primary culture. - Incubation time needed for enzymatic tissue disaggregation is reduced and during the incubation period with the digestive enzymes, diffusion of nutrients and gases into the tissue mass are optimized. Expect higher yields of viable cells. For an excellent review of the Method of Enzymatic Disaggregation see http://www.worthington-biochem.com/tissuedissociation/default.html) .