1.5H High Performance coverslips in cell culture & super resolution microscopy

The strength of Neuvitro High performance coverslips:

Professional coating technology + 1.5H high performance coverglass = Excellency in cell culture -super resolution imaging

The problems:

Problem A: 0.170mm thickness is critical for super resolution miscroscopy. Variation in thickness = poor imaging.

Problem B: Most of the cells, when cultured in vitro, do not form reliable attachment onto glass surface = poor cell viability in growth, differentiation, and responsiveness. You can never get an excellent imaging from a poor cell culture!

Problem C: To generate super resolution imaging, the cells should attach to surface of coverglass as close as possible instead of attached to slides = cells should be cultured on coverglasses.

The problems are solved! -- Neuvitro coated 1.5H High performance coverslips:

1. The 0.170mm +/- 0.005mm thickness of Neuvitro precision coverslips is guaranteed for each piece of the German precision coverglasses you used in cell culture - imaging in super resolution microscopy techniques, such as SIM, STED, SPDM, PTM, SOFI, etc.

2. Neuvitro's proven coating technology insures your cell culture on each piece of the coated 1.5H precision coverslips to be strongly viable and robust in vitro (see customer's Publications using Neuvitro coated coverslips).

3. Neuvitro's broad coverage: Different cells need different coating. You will find German precision coverslips in different sizes being coated with different substrates, such as PDL, Laminin, Collagen, Fibronectin, Gelatin, PLL, PLO, PDL+ Laminin, PDL+Fibronectin, PLO+Laminin, etc.

4. Time saving advantages: All Neuvitro coated precision coverslips are sterile and packed 15 pieces per bag with long shelf life to 1/2 year. These precision coverslips show consistent performance from the first day to the last day in the half year. You do not need to do Nitric Acid treatment, washing, coating, and sterilization in your own lab. When doing your cell culture, simply open a plastic bag, put coated precision coverslips into wells, seed cells onto the precision coverslips, and see their rapid attachment and growth, then do your super resolution imaging with the excellent culture.

Specifications and applications of 1.5H High performance coverslips:

All 1.5H high precision German coverslips are made in Germany for cell culture and super resolution microscopy.

In Super Resolution imaging, the quality of the cover glasses, in particular the compliance with the nominal thickness, has a crucial impact on the imaging quality. Variations of thickness reduce the image contrast and result in image defects, most notably in spherical aberration. These high-precision cover glasses with thickness No. 1.5H provide exceptionally accurate thickness of 170 μm ± 5 μm. This new generation of cover glasses are highly recommended for objectives with high numerical aperture and high resolution, for example:

dry objectives: N.A. > 0.7
objectives for water immersion: N.A. > 1.0
objectives for glycerol immersion: N.A. > 1.2
objectives for oil immersion: N.A. > 1.3

made of chemically resistant borosilicate glass D 263® M of the first hydrolytic class
absolutely colourless, perfectly clear, suitable for fluorescence microscopy
in compliance with DIN ISO 8255
thickness No. 1.5H (0.170 mm ± 0.005 mm)
for super resolution microscopy in SIM, STED, SPDM, PTM, SOFI, etc.

Commercially available coverslips come in a variety of thicknesses,

Among those the thickness closest to 0.17mm is a #1.5 coverslip.

For super resolution optical microscopes, a #1.5H (high performance) is the required thickness. Using the incorrect coverslip thickness can greatly reduce your ability to get the most information out of your sample. Coverslip thickness is less important when using objective lenses that have a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.4 or lower, which on most microscopes would only be lenses between 1x-10x. As magnification (2x or higher) and NA increases, the loss from having an incorrect thickness coverslip can become significant.

Sample Thickness for Super Resolution microscopy:

Thicker samples will be a challenge for SR-SIM imaging. The instrument can be expected to work well with sample thicknesses of up to 5 to 10 microns. Deeper imaging may be possible, depending on the refractive properties of the sample and the intensity of the fluorophores. Please be aware that the deeper you attempt to image, the more difficult it will be to achieve a super resolution image.

Use 1.5H high performance coverslips:

Most oil or water objectives are designed to image through 170 micron thick coverslips. Commercially available coverslips have variation range in thickness up to 12%. The upper end of this can cause a severe reduction in resolution. To avoid this, 1.5H high performance coverslips must be used, which varies in thickness by no more than 2.9%. Use of these coverslips is strongly recommended for preparing samples for either traditional fluorescence imaging or super resolution.

Why Super resolution?

As Nikon explained: Despite the advantages of traditional fluorescence microscopy, the technique is hampered in ultrastructural investigations due to the resolution limit set by the diffraction of light, which restricts the amount of information that can be captured with standard objectives. In the past few years, a number of novel approaches have been employed to circumvent the diffraction limit, including near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM), stimulated emission depletion microscopy (STED), stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) and structured illumination microscopy (SIM). These techniques have all achieved improved lateral (x-y) resolution down to tens of nanometers, more than an order of magnitude beneath that imposed by the diffraction limit, but each method has a unique set of limitations.

Below is the list of 1.5H High performance coverslips available from other companies

From Bio Sciencetools:

Circular 1.5H high performance coverglasses in diameters of 10mm, 12mm, 13mm, 18mm, 24mm, and 25mm

Rectangular 1.5H high performance coverglasses 18x18mm, 22x22mm, 24x50mm, and 25x60mm

From Carl Zeiss Microscopy:

Rectangular 1.5H high performance coverglasses 18x18mm, 22x22mm

From Ibidi:

Cell culture dishes and chambers with 1.5H High performance coverslips at bottom center

From MatTek:

Rectangular 1.5H high performance coverglasses, 18x18mm

35mm culture dish with 1.5h high performance coverglass at bottom

From Azer Scientific:

Circular 1.5H high performance coverslips in diameters of 10mm, 12mm, 18mm, and 25mm

Rectangular 1.5H high performance coverslips, 18x18mm, 22x22mm, 24x50mm, and 24x60mm

From Applied Microarrays:

Rectangular 1.5H high performance coverslips, 18x18mm, 22x22mm, 24x60mm, 25x65mm, and 25x75mm