Rhodia Ag

Matthias Zimmermann

Gert Schluter

A device for the uptake, transportation and recovery of cell material present in body fluids, cell-fixing liquids, and mixtures of body fluids and cell-fixing liquids, and also for the transfer of the recovered cell materials to microscope slides. The device comprises a vessel (1) with an inlet (2) and an outlet (3); a removable fiber element (5) is arranged, flush with the wall, in the outlet (3), and comprises fibers which are insoluble in body fluids and cell-fixing liquids and which are arranged lengthwise in the direction of the long axis of the vessel (1) with the formation of through capillaries, such that the capillaries have a smaller diameter than the diameter of the cells. The vessel (1) can be liquid-tightly and gas-tightly closed. Preferably, the fibers of the fiber element (5) are crimped and/or texturized fibers and/or hollow fibers. In contrast to conventional devices and methods for the recovery of cells from cell-fixing liquids, in which the cells must be caused to sediment or settle and a long time is required, the separation of cells and cell-fixing liquids takes place in a very short time with the device according to this invention. Apart from this, the recovered cells can be directly transferred to microscope slides. As fibers for the fiber element (5) there can be used, for example, stuffer box-crimped polypropylene fibers or cellulose-2,5-acetate fibers. Cell-fixing liquids are, e.g., methanol, ethanol or isopropanol. Body fluids are, e.g., urine, cerebrospinal fluid, pleural effusions, or ascites.

Growing community of inventors

Gundelfingen, Germany

Matthias Zimmermann