Glass Bottom
Culture Dishes

35mm and 50mm

Glass Bottom
Multiwell Plates



6, 12, 24 & 96-well plates

What follows are several tips about our Glass Bottom Culture Dishes that our Customers have found useful.

Coverslip removal from culture dishes:

To remove the coverslip from the dish you will need Dow Corning fluid PDCF OS 30 (Dow Corning Fluid-50 ml vial available from MatTek for $20):

1. Invert the cover of the dish.
2. Pipette 1.0 ml of OS 30 into the inverted cover.
3. Place the bottom of the dish in the cover. Make sure that the liquid is touching the bottom of the coverslip.
4. Allow the dish to sit 45 minutes at room temperature. Dry the bottom of the coverslip with a Kimwipe.
5. Place the dish on a clean surface. Using foreceps, press down on the edge of the coverslip. This will separate the dish from the coverslip.

Please contact MatTek Corporation for assistance, if necessary.

Improved cell attachment to the glass coverslip surface:

Overview: Some laboratories have reported improved cell attachment and growth following a 15 minute treatment of the glass bottom with hydrochloric acid (HCl). Also, cells can be initially plated in the microwell area only to improve the attachment of cells to the glass surface. Finally, microwell dishes can be coated with your favorite extracellular matrix coating or attachment factor.

Acid washing procedure: Under sterile conditions just prior to plating cells, pipette 250 microliters of 1 N HCl onto the 10-mm glass bottom microwell of the dish; if using the 14-mm glass bottom dish, use 500 microliters of HCl. After 15 minutes, decant the HCl and rinse the dish 3x with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) or culture medium. Cells are then plated in the normal fashion.

Restricted plating of cells: Cells which strongly favor attachment to plastic rather than glass can be coerced to attach to the glass bottom by initially plating the cells only in the microwell. For the 10-mm microwell dishes, cells are plated into the microwell in 250 microliters of medium; for the 14-mm microwell dishes, cells are plated into the microwell using 500 microliters of medium. Dishes are incubated for 1 hour and then the remainder of the dish is gently filled with culture medium. After one hour, the dish should be filled to normal levels to avoid changes in osmolarity (due to evaporation) which can be deleterious to the cultures.

Extracellular matrix (ECM) coating: Poly-d-lysine (GC) coated and collagen (COL) coated dishes are available from MatTek Corporation. All GC and COL coated dishes are certified for cell growth using primary rat hippocampal neurons. Alternatively, many labs apply the coating of their choice to the uncoated glass bottom in order to enhance cell attachment and growth.

Please contact MatTek Corporation for assistance, if necessary.

Use of gridded coverslips:

Overview: Many researchers would like to microinject specific cells and then be able to monitor individual cells as a function of time in culture. The use of gridded glass bottom coverslip dishes greatly facilitates such studies.

Available dishes:

Part number P50G-2-14-F-GRID: The 50 mm dish contains photo-etched gridded coverslips from Bellco Glass. The coverslip is a No. 2 thickness (0.17-0.25 mm) and has a microscopic alphanumeric grid of 520 coded squares which is 600 µm on a side. The glass bottom area is a 14 mm diameter circle.

Special orders:
The above dishes are also available coated with poly-d-lysine (GC) or collagen (COL). Special order charge applies per order (independent of the size of the order).

Please contact MatTek Corporation for assistance, if necessary.

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