1.Laminar Flow Hood

• Biosafety Level 1 Containment Protocol
• Provides optimal aseptic working environments
• Used for mammalian cell culture: bovine chondrocytes and cartilage tissue plugs
• Used for microbial cultures
• HEPA filters that have 99.9% efficiency on particles of 0.3um or more
• Seventy-two inch model

2. Water-Jacketed CO2 Incubator

• Maintained at 37 C, 5% CO2, 95% humidity
• Temperature Range: 5 - 60 degrees Celsius ( + 0.2 degrees)
• Water Jacket keeps cultures warm during power failures
• Manually-filled water pan has evaporative humidity up to 98% relative humidity
• Provides optimal environment for bovine cartilage tissue plugs

3. Microscopes & Digital Camera

• Wild Heerbrugg Stereo Dissection microscope
• Leitz Dialux 20 fluorescent microscope
• Polaroid DMC2 digital camera optional attachment to either scope for high resolution microscopic photos
• Fluorescent light source and different microscope filters for various staining techniques

4. Rotary Microtome

• Capable of slicing tissue specimens into thin slices for analysis
• Used in research for histology and to examine tibio-femoral explants

5. In Vitro Explant Loading Device

• Custom-designed pneumatic "cartilage exerciser"
• Biocompatible- operates within CO2 incubator- explants kept in standard tissue culture media in sterile well plates
• Adjustable & accurate- output loads and waveforms are controlled through a computer interface
• Simulates the mechanical loading environment of a joint