Technical and scientific expertise
- Ex vivo vascular reactivity
- Hemodynamic profiling of rodents by telemetry
- Pancreatic islet/aggregate/organoid perifusion for dynamic secretion measurements
- Electron paramagnetic resonance spectrometry
- Animal ultrasound
- Laser Doppler for small animals
- Depending on the techniques, the platform offers:
- full access to equipment, user training, assistance in setting up experimental protocols and analysing results
- access to equipment and expertise on a collaborative basis or as a service
Main equipment
- Electronic magnetic resonance spectrometers type Bucker EMX micro and ESR 5000
- Set-up for the recording and analysis of haemodynamic data in unanaesthetised rodents (DSI)
- Wire myograph (DMT) and pressure myograph (Ionoptix)
- Vevo 2100 ultrasound scanner (FujiFilm/VisualSonics)
- Laser Doppler perfusion imager (LDI, Moor Instruments)
- Homemade two- or four-chamber parallel perifusion devices
Applications
- Tissue isolation
- Reactivity of isolated micro and macrovessels
- Simultaneous measurements of calcium and contractility
- Haemodynamic profiling (rhythm, pressures), ECG, blood glucose monitoring, activity measurement in the unanaesthetised rodent; simultaneous data recording for one to eight specimens
- Non-invasive 2D/3D ultrasound imaging of the heart and large vessels in small rodents; equipment offers capabilities for B-mode, M-mode
- Quantitative assessment of:
- nitric oxide (NO) and nytrosyl haemoglobin (HbNO)
- ROS (with DMPO, CAT-1, CP-H or MHC)
- thiol-containing molecules in biological samples (cultured cells, blood and tissue)
- metal-containing proteins (methaemoglobin, ceruloplasmin, etc.)
- Doppler imaging of the lower limbs in mice - Assessment of post-ischaemic angiogenesis
- Perifusion for dynamic measurements of hormone secretion from pancreatic islets, cell suspensions or organoids
Services available to
- UCLouvain students, clinicians and researchers
- Non-UCLouvain parties