Dye-Trak® is a proven non-radioactive method of measuring regional blood flow in
experimental
preparations. Polystyrene microspheres of highly uniform diameter are
precision dyed with one of several
possible colors. Using an injection of Dye-Trak®
spheres into a 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
micro-filtration. The dyes are then recovered from the spheres within a known volume of a
solvent
and their concentrations determined by spectrophotometry. A
free Excel macro is available to compute volume blood
flow from the spectrophotometer
readings and the tissue weights.
The original Dye-Trak® is a family of
5-color microspheres colors that have become a standard for non-radioactive
measurement of regional blood flow in research animals. These are
precision 15um polystyrene latex microspheres
with a very accurately controlled size.
Dye-Trak® VII+ is a newer set of seven
absorbance colors that are now available in addition the the original
Dye-Trak family. The newer
Dye-Trak® VII+ colors have
absorbance peaks that are narrower and sharper, with
higher absorbance (typically 1.5AU/5000 in 100ul
solvent). We recommend that new users and present users
beginning an new round of
experiments use the Dye-Trak VII+ colors. There is a recommended color
progression for the new colors that will yield the minimum overlap between colors for a given number of colors
used. This same color
progression is used in the free Excel matrix
inversion macro which we supply.
Dye-Trak® Microsphere brochure
The Dye-Trak® Dye-Trak 'F' and FluoSpheres microspheres blood flow technique is described by Triton's US Patents 5,230,343 and 5,253,649, and German Patent 40 19 025.
Free Blood Flow Quantification Software
A free Dye-Trak® volume blood flow analysis software macros Microsoft
Excel are designed
for ease of use and
accurate
determination of volume blood flow for each tissue sample. The software can be
used to automatically download the spectrophotometer readings, saving time and
minimizing the chance of a data entry error.. This user friendly macro
uses matrix inversion processing to correct the spectrophotometer readings
for known spectral overlap (spill-over) between colors and converts the
corrected spectrophotometer data and
tissue weight information into blood flow output data.
The macro is available in several forms for various numbers of
experimental colors
used. For most accurate results, the macros should be used with a specific
set of colors The recommend colors for a given number of
experimental colors is given in the following link:
color pallet sequence .Note: The
colors within a set can be
injected in any order.
The Excel macros is available
in two forms: with a Process Control color and without Process
Control. We strongly recommend the use of a Process Control to maximize the
accuracy of the blood flow analysis.
The matrix inversion Excel macro can be downloaded at the following
link: Triton
Excel blood flow macros.
Dye-Trak® User's Manual Microsphere Bibliography
Copyright 1995, Triton Technology, Inc.
Updated February 22, 2014
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