Non-Radioactive Microspheres
for
Regional Blood Flow
Determination
DyeTrak Microsphere brochure (pdf)
Microsphere Bibliography (Web view )
Microsphere Bibliography (printable pdf )
Radioactive microspheres
have been used for many years as the standard for measuring regional blood flow
distribution in animal research models. Radioactive microspheres have many
negative health, safety and
environmental issues associated with their use.
Triton Technology offers
a variety of non-radioactive tracer microspheres for determination of
regional blood
flow distribution and particle deposition . Monodisperse tracer microspheres are made of stable polystyrene
latex cross-linked with 2% DVB. These microspheres are marked with one of several unique families of
markers
and used to measure regional blood flow at different time points during
the course of an experiment. Typically
blood flow measurements are made
using 15um diameter microspheres. Occasionally 10um microspheres are
also used
for blood flow applications.
Dye-Trak®
colored microspheres are a safe new non-radioactive method of measuring regional
blood flow in
experimental preparations. Polystyrene microspheres of highly uniform diameter are
precision
dyed with one a number of possible colors (5 to 7). Original Dye-Trak®
offers five colors and the newer
Dye-Trak® VII+ offers seven colors. Using an injection of Dye-Trak®
spheres
into a local end-organ perfusion
line or the left atrium, regional blood flow can be determined. The
spheres are recovered from tissue and blood
samples by digestion and subsequent centrifugation or micro-filtration. The dyes are then eluted from the
recovered microspheres with a known volume of a
solvent and the dye concentrations are determined by
spectrophotometry. The separation of a
composite absorbance spectrum using the Dye-Trak® method is as
accurate as the separation
of energy spectra using the radioactive microsphere technique. Dye-Trak®
measurement of
regional blood flow yields the same values as with radioactive microspheres, without the
difficulties associated with radioactivity. Dye-Trak® is available in two
variations: the original 5-color palette
and a recently developed Dye-Trak®
VII+
7-color palette. The recommended colors to use for a given
number
of injections is listed in a Color Progression Table.
While the original dye-Trak colors are still available we are
recommending that
new users use Dye-Trak VII+ for their experiments.
Dye-Trak® microspheres are defined by Triton
Technology US patents
5,230,343 and 5,253,649 and foreign.
Dye-Trak®'F' fluorescent microspheres offer high sensitivity
measurement of
regional blood flow determination quantified by fluorescence
spectroscopy.
Using an injection of
fluorescent microspheres into a local end-organ perfusion line or the left atrium, regional blood flow can be
determined. The
spheres are recovered from tissue and blood samples by digestion and subsequent
centrifugation or micro-filtration. The dyes are then eluted from the recovered microspheres
with a known
volume of a
solvent and the dye concentrations determined by fluorescence spectrophotometry. The separation
of a
composite emission spectrum using the fluorescent microsphere method is as accurate as the separation
of
energy spectra using the radioactive microsphere technique. This method offers greater sensitivity for low flow
situations and there are a large number of markers available.
Dye-Trak® 'F'
microspheres are defined by Triton Technology
US patents 5,230,343, 5,253,649 and
foreign.
BioPAL Neutron-Activated
Microspheres
The BioPAL neutron activated microspheres were patented by W Scott Kemper
of Triton Technology and Christopher Rheinhardt of Biopal (US patent 6,328,700).
For information on BioPAL microspheres, contact Triton
Technology:
858-272-1251
Copyright 1995-2000 Triton Technology, Inc.
Updated Dec12, 2015
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