VITROCELL® Cloud Alpha 12

For exposure of cell cultures to liquid aerosols at the Air/Liquid Interface


The VITROCELL® Cloud Alpha 12 is our innovation in the Cloud family and ­presents a great leap forward in ­automated exposure of cell cultures. It combines high deposition efficiency with ease of use. The development is based on the well-known and frequently published VITROCELL® Cloud formats (12- and 24-well) of the first generation. It’s functionality enables fully automated processes with an all-in-one control unit. Everyday experiments at the Air/Liquid Interface (ALI) have never been easier.

The Cloud Alpha 12 was ­developed as a result of numerous customer requests and is capable to expose mammalian cell cultures in 12- or 24-well sized cell culture inserts. All commercial brands are supported.

The Cloud system is suitable for nebulization of solutions and ­suspensions. Fields of application are virus research, screening of inhaled drugs and toxicity testing of inhaled substances such as chemicals or nanoparticles.

In response to the scientific need to expose in physiologically relevant conditions, the VITROCELL® Cloud Alpha exposure devices have been specifically designed to enable direct exposure of mammalian cells or tissue at the Air/Liquid Interface. Here the cell cultures are not covered with media as opposed to submerged conditions which cause an undesired inter­action of the formerly airborne substances with the culture media.

Cell systems cultivated on membrane inserts are exposed at the Air/Liquid Interface (ALI) so that the test substances are received directly. This approach allows for more credible and authentic results than by submerged exposure due to a closer replication of the human physiology.

Exposure at the Air/Liquid Interface

Air/Liquid Cultivation
and Exposure in Exposure Module

A: Direct and controlled ­exposure of test ­atmosphere to cells
B: Cells on membrane
C: Media below cells

How the Vitrocell  Cloud works

After pipetting the suspension, exposure to the cell cultures takes place in two steps, each with three phases:

Step 1 - Clean Air Control

Phase 1: Emission Of Cloud
Phase 2: Homogeneous Mixing
Phase 3: Gravitational Settling

Step 2 - Test Aerosol

Phase 1: Emission Of Cloud
Phase 2: Homogeneous Mixing
Phase 3: Gravitational Settling

Insert holder system

Insert holders for 12- and 24-well sized inserts are part of the delivery. All commercial brands are supported.

More about VITROCELL Cloud Alpha 12

Dosimetry using Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM)

The QCM sensor is integrated in the Cloud Alpha 6 exposure module. It is capable of measuring the deposited mass at a resolution of 10 nanogram/cm2 per second. Results are reported online by the VITROCELL Monitor software. Data is presented in graphs and stored in MS Excel®.

Different choices of nebulizers

The system comes with a choice of 3 types of vibrating mesh nebulizers having droplet MMAD ranges of 2.5 – 6.0 µm, 2.5 – 4.0 µm and 4.0 – 6.0 µm.

Recommended nebulisation volumes are 200 µl. So the device is particularly suitable for testing whenever small quantities of testing materials are available.

Discover more details in 3D-interaction

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      Features

      • Integrated controller for aerosol generator
      • Optional integrated microbalance controller
      • Defined experiment recipes
      • Automatisation of the experiment by nebulization time or by user-defined volume
      • Output rate database for nebulizers
      • Heating system
      • Optional PowerVent function: evacuation of potentially residual aerosols via vacuum pump
      • Designed for virus research, screening of inhaled drugs and toxicity testing of inhaled substances such as chemicals or nanoparticles

      Videos

      Cloud Alpha 12 – Function Principle

      Cloud Alpha – Family Overview

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