Object carriers and Petri dishes for samples to be examined are used in the most variable examination methods and must therefore meet many different demands. Many biological-medical examinations are for instance carried out by the aid of light-optical microscopic and/or spectroscopic techniques. Besides the pure light-optical microscopy (e.g. for the examination of cells), methods of the high-resolution, fluorescence, phase contrast or confocal microscopy as well as the UV spectroscopy are used. Combinations of these methods are also used. Particularly, the analysis of fluorescence signals is of decisive meaning to prove specific reactions.
This is mostly implemented by the qualitative analysis of fluorescence of a solution which contains the molecules, macromolecules or cells to be examined (e.g. via microscopy or spectroscopy). The substance to be examined as well as “verification molecules” for these substances, such as anti-bodies, are in solution. This leads to the fact that relatively large amounts of the molecules to be proven as well as the substances (or cells) to be examined must be used.
The sample chambers used for examinations of this type, in which the solutions with the substances are located, are usually made of glass or silica glass. Plastic containers are hardly used for this type of examination due to the poor optical property of most of the plastic materials (compared to glass). Exceptions are plastic dishes that are open towards the microscope or the spectrometer, so that the light emitted by the molecule does not have to pass plastics on its way to the detector.
A Petri dish is for instance known from DE 3102571 A1, which consists of plastics and which has a thin bottom of 0.17 mm for the microscopy. This Petri dish is particularly used for the cell microscopy, however, it does not comprise a flow system. It does also not have a channel system or reservoir to apply a defined flow. In this shell, any specific modifications of the plastics adapted to the substances to be examined are also not provided.
A monitoring chamber for microscopy in connection with a flow system connected is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,286. This is a “sandwich” construction, which basically consists of a special support into which microscopy cover slips are inserted that are fixed by cover plates. Thus, this system consists of at least five different elements that must be assembled before every experiment. Thereby, sterile work is for instance only ensured with expensive provisions. The cover slips used, the support and the cover plates must be cleaned between the experiments. The flow rate must be generated in this chamber by hose connections to a reservoir not attached on the chamber. This includes the risk of the formation of air bubbles in the flow system.
A surface treatment or functionalization for the specific immobilization of molecules or cells of the cover slips used is not provided. The cover slips used must be sealed by seal rings. Experience shows that this often leads to leakage and to the fact that molecules in the solution change their functional structure due to a contact with the seal ring, or that they absorb to the seal ring. This also applies to the support in which the channels are inserted.
A micro-channel system made of acrylic glass is described in WO 97/38300, which serves for the electrophoretic separation. However, the micro-channel is not used for rinsing through liquids or for high-resolution microscopy. The acrylic glass does also not have sufficiently favorable optical properties to carry out high-class microscopy. The inner walls of this channel system are also not surface-treated, with the purpose of being able to analyze specific reactions there. The analysis of the macromolecules introduced into this channel system takes place in a gel introduced. Molecules introduced into the channel are also not moved by an applied hydrodynamic flow but by use of electrical fields.
Most of the techniques with conventional sample chambers only allow a quantitative but not a qualitative analysis of the signals. The solvent exchange, e.g. when using a glass cuvette for dilution, is very elaborate. The simple exchange of liquids in a sample chamber is, however, necessary to prove special reactions of molecules in the liquid with other molecules, macromolecules, cells, etc. or to rinse out superfluous molecules, which are located in the liquid. Moreover, excessive molecules may weaken or extinguish the fluorescence signal or spectrum of the molecule or molecule complex to be examined.