This is a US National Phase application based upon PCT Application No. PCT/CN2016/110120, filed Dec. 15, 2016 and titled “COVERSLIP FOR CELLS”.

FIELD

This invention relates to the field of cell culture technology, specifically to a coverslip for cells.

BACKGROUND

Coverslip is also called round coverslip for cells. Coverslip is an experimental material which provides solid phase surface for the growth of adherent cells so as to obtain in vitro cells according to the requirements of experiment and research. For example, coverslips or slides are immersed in cell culture medium so that the adherent cells grow on these substrates. The growth of adherent cells needs a support on which they can attach. The growth and proliferate of the cells on the support surface depends on adhesive factors secreted by the cells or provided in the culture medium. Coverslip is mainly used in the techniques such as cell morphology, immunocytochemistry, nucleic acid in situ hybridization and so on. At present, in many scientific research projects with large sample sizes and numerous indicators to be measured, there is an urgent need to prepare a large number of coverslips under the same experimental conditions and conduct various analyses and tests on them.

The coverslip is a round substrate with a thickness of 0.17 mm and a width of 8 mm, 14 mm, 20 mm, 25 mm and the like. The surface of the coverslip is TC (Tissue culture) treated so that both sides of which can be used (the front and the back are relative concepts). Surface of the coverslip is sterilized to ensure asepsis on the surface of the coverslip. Due to the permanent cation charges on surface of the coverslip, the cryostat tissue sections or cells are absorbed to the substrate by electrostatic interaction and covalent bond is formed between the substrate and the tissue section, so that the sections or cells can be tightly attached to the substrate without adhesive agent or protein coating. However, the coverslip is likely to move and overlap on the smooth bottom of cell culture dish so that the growth conditions and area of each coverslip with cell growth are different, leading to deviations of experimental results caused by poor identity of the coverslip. In order to solve the problems above, the manufacturers have made the following improvements to the cell culture device based on the design of the coverslip.

CN203569115U discloses a cell culture dish structure with coverslip, comprising: a culture dish and a coverslip, wherein the coverslip is embedded in a small hole of the culture dish, and a base set is provided at the bottom of the small hole with the same width, so that the coverslip is supported by the base. Therein, the main part of the coverslip is a round structure and a convex corner is provided at the outer edge of the coverslip, which is connected to the main part by a stiffener in the middle. When in using, the convex corner is above the base on one side.

CN202214367U discloses a coverslip holder for a culture dish with a high-density array, which includes a cross scaffold, and a plurality of projections are arranged at intervals on the cross scaffold in the horizontal direction of the same. The coverslips are fixed by the projections to effectively avoid floating, deflecting or moving.

By connecting the coverslip to the bottom of the culture dish with a stiffener, or fixing the coverslip between a groove at the bottom of the culture dish and the projections, both the two documents effectively solve the technical problems such as floating, deflecting or moving of the coverslip.

However, since the coverslips in both above documents are installed in a groove on the bottom surface of the culture dish, when cell suspension is dropped on the coverslip, the cell suspension easily flows into the gap between the culture dish and the coverslip along the edge of the coverslip due to the spatial position. Thus, the cells on the upper surface of the coverslip are not concentrated enough, and the result observation of the follow-up detection such as HE staining and immunocytochemical staining are affected. In addition, the coverslip disclosed in the above two documents have to be separately prepared and installed singly to a culture dish, which is a complicated process. Therefore, it is urgently needed to provide a coverslip structure that can achieve seamless connection of the coverslip and the target culture device, so as to solve the technical problem that cell suspension flows into the gap between the coverslip and the culture dish.

SUMMARY

In view of this, the present invention provides a coverslip for cells which realize seamless combination of coverslip and target culture device so as to solve the technical problem that cell suspension flows into the gap between the coverslip and the culture dish, and the structure is delicate, easy to be used in batch experiment and easy to be compared.

The present invention provides a coverslip for cells that is in a sheet shape and the upper and lower surfaces of which are parallel, said coverslip comprises:

a coverslip substrate1and a sub-coverslip2;

wherein at least N hollow part11is provided on the coverslip substrate1and the sub-coverslip2is fixed to the hollow part11through M breakable connecting part3, wherein N and M are natural numbers not related to each other.

Optionally,

the sub-coverslip2comprises a sub-coverslip body21and a handle22; and the sub-coverslip body21is connected with the handle22via a flexible part23.

Optionally,

a label concave area24or a label layer25for implicit order is provided on the handle22.

Optionally,

a colored layer is provided on the label concave area24or the label layer25.

Optionally,

the width of the breakable connecting part3is between 0.1 and 0.3 mm.

Optionally,

the coverslip substrate1, the sub-coverslip2and the breakable connecting part3are integrally formed.

Optionally,

the sub-coverslip2, the breakable connecting part3and the coverslip substrate1are all obtained by cutting an original coverslip substrate through numerical control process.

Optionally,

the thicknesses of the coverslip substrate1and the sub-coverslip2are not less than 0.08 mm.

Optionally,

a hydrophilic layer is provided on the surfaces of the coverslip substrate1and the sub-coverslip2.

Optionally,

the sub-coverslip2comprises a first sub-coverslip and a second sub-coverslip, and the sizes of the first sub-coverslip and the second sub-coverslip are different.

The key beneficial effects brought by improvement of the coverslip provided by the present invention are described hereinafter.

The coverslip is in a sheet shape and the upper and lower surfaces of which are parallel, comprising: a coverslip substrate1and a sub-coverslip2; and there are hollow part11set on the coverslip substrate1, and the sub-coverslip2is fixed to the hollow part11through M breakable connecting part3. The coverslip of the present invention has an intact sheet structure. Each sub-coverslip2is fixed to the intact sheet with two tie points. There are at least N hollow part11on each coverslip substrate1, which can be used by multiple cells at the same time, that is, they are suitable for batch experiment and are easy to be compared. If the coverslip needs to be installed in the target culture device, the intact sheet can be completely attached to the target culture device by physical and chemical methods, for example, the bottom surface of the inner wall of culture dish, culture flask or culture plate. In this way, there is no gap between each sub-coverslip2and the bottom surface of the inner wall of the culture device, which achieves seamless adhesion of the sheet to the target culture device, and thereby solving the technical problem that the cell suspension flows into the gap between the coverslip and the culture dish. Due to there is not any connection between the sub-coverslip used in the subsequent processing and the target culture device, the sub-coverslip can be easily detached from the breakable connecting part3as an object for further cell experiments.

