Wire myograph systems

Our myograph systems are used to investigate the functional responses and vascular reactivity of small arteries, veins, lymph vessels and tracheal smooth muscles with lumen diameter from 100µm to 3mm and segment lengths up to 3.5mm.

Wire myography is an ex vivo technique widely used in preclinical research, to examine microvessels contractility following drug challenges. It is commonly used in drug development and toxicology studies, to look at the response of the vessel from a wide range of species to agonists or antagonists added to the bath, generating a Concentration Response Curve (CRC).

Benefits

Modular

Easy to use

Highly reproducible

Description

Compact and modular systems

Available in single (MYO1), dual (MYO2) or with four myograph modules (emkaBATH4), our systems are integrated and compact and fit on lab bench.

emkaMYO setup, easy to install and use with its touchscreen, is particularly adapted for education, while emkaBATH4 answers more complex requirements, with full automation, in-line electric heating and 4 microvessel baths that can be optionally switched to tubular baths. Learn more

DID YOU KNOW? Up to four emkaBATH setups, i.e 16 myographs, can be monitored from a single computer equipped with IOX2 acquisition software.

Easy to use

Designed to facilitate the experiment, monobloc myographs present a smooth surface entirely corrosion-resistant, minimizing the risk of contamination. With large side flares, access to the bath and microvessel mounting is facilitated.

Calculated parameters generated by IOX2 software can be automatically processed by datanalyst software, to provide statistics such as data group averaging, ED50…, presented in concise tabular format.

Highly reproducible

Studying the intrinsic ability to contact or relax in an isolated tissue bath gives researchers complete environmental control (temperature, physiological solution, etc.) and remove the normal homeostatic regulation and whole animal influences.

It allows for the addition of drugs (via the physiological solution) and observation of their effect on the tissue without the complications involved with in vivo experimentation, such as neuronal and hormonal effects from living animal. Obtained measurements are highly reproducible and easy to analyze.

In addition, the researcher can control perfusate composition and oxygenation, to create various conditions (anoxia, hypoxia, hypo/hypertensive), without normal homeostatic functions interfering.

Furthermore, the opportunity to have 4 baths allows for multiple sample testing in one experiment, increasing accuracy of the data (dose response curves).

System configuration

emkaMYO2 is driven manually and equipped with 1 or 2 myograph modules. Compact, easy to install, use and store, it is ideal for education:

Touchscreen for information display and simple settings
Automatic emptying

The emkaMYO2 includes the following:

A mainframe to be placed on a bench, completed with baths and covers, integrated transducers and amplifiers, user interface and electronics.
A power unit
Silicone tubing and connectors
a 250 ml perfusate bottle

With a up to four myographs modules, emkaBATH4 setup answers your more complex requirements.

Fully automated, it can switch from myograph to tubular baths in a few minutes, to handle tissues of diameter 500µm to 10 mm, and up to 40 mm long: Check out our tissue baths

The automatic bath filling/emptying and tissue tensioning can be remotely managed, from a computer equipped with IOX2 software, and can be configured by a protocol.

The emkaBATH4 includes the following:

A mainframe to be placed on a bench, including baths and covers, integrated transducers and amplifiers, user interface, pumps, heater, electronics etc.
A power unit
Silicone tubing and connectors
a 2 L perfusate bottle
a 10 L waste bottle for collecting used perfusate, can be delivered in option

Techniques & measurements

Wire myography is a technique developed by Mulvany and Halpern¹, to record tension of microvessels under isometric condition.

Each myograph module has a 5ml bath equipped with two jaws attached respectively to a transducer and to a Vernier positioner.

Each jaw holds a piece of tungsten wire on which the vessel is mounted (parallel wires are passed through the vessel lumen). Tissue pretensioning is done by the precision Vernier positioners. The force of muscular contraction is transmitted along the other jaw, to a sensitive isometric force transducer, capable of detecting micrograms-force.

Oxygenated and nutrient-rich perfusate maintained at 37°C is provided to tissues during the experiment.

As different tissue fragments can answer differently to stimulation, depending on their size, pathological state or quantity of available fiber (for elastic tissue), it is recommended to standardize experimental settings. The normalization procedure is performed using the normalization module, in IOX2 software.

Measured tension is acquired by IOX2 software, which provides:

Detailed calculation on slow contracting tissue
Full data display as graph, tables or trends
On-the-fly comment and mark addition
A normalization module

¹ Mulvany MJ, Halpern W. Mechanical properties of vascular smooth muscle cells in situ. Nature. Nature. 260, 617–619 (1976).

Automatic post-processing of subject parameters by datanalyst software can provide analysis between and within subjects such as but not limited to data group averaging and ED50.