exposure to gas mixture (plethysmography)

The gas mixture kit is an add-on option for whole-body plethysmography with conscious freely moving animals. It allows you to deliver a specific mixture of any gases to the subject, to study the effects of hypoxia, hyperoxia, hypercapnia… Furthermore, delivery can be controlled from software.

hardware

To deliver a gas mixture to the plethysmograph, the following components are required in addition to those provided in the setup for freely moving animals:

• mass flow controllers (1 for each gas, up to 3 )
• flow regulator unit
• controller-PC interface box
• gas bottles (not supplied by emka TECHNOLOGIES)

The mass flow controllers enable precise control of the quantity of each gas in the mixture.

emka TECHNOLOGIES will supply controllers with a suitable full scale of flow (determined by the species you are studying, the number of animals and the total flow and composition of the gas mixture to be studied). Configuration of each mass flow controller includes selection of the gas.

The mass flow controllers are connected to the serial port of the PC via the interface box.

As shown in the setup, the gases flow from the bottles to the mass flow controller, through the flow regulator unit then into the plethysmographs.

The role of the flow regulator unit is to provide a specific pressure downstream of the mass flow controllers (essential for their correct functioning). The maximum flow rate at this point is set manually for each gas. Excess gas is released through the attached pressure regulator valve.