Short communication: New culture tube with an inside wall devised for studies of short-term hyperthermia

Abstract

We devised a new kind of culture tube with which a cell suspension could be warmed through both the inside and outside walls. Use of this tube makes it possible to measure the effects of short-term hyperthermia more accurately than with the conventional tubes, which is heated through the outside wall only. Temperature curves rose significantly faster in the double-walled tube than in the conventional one. The accelerated heating efficiency of the new tube was also seen by the enhanced inhibition of [³H]thymidine incorporation into the DNA of Ehrlich ascites tumour cells grown in these tubes at the same final temperature as in a conventional tube.

Key Words:

• double-walled tube
• hyperthermia
• heat-conductivity efficiency
• DNA synthesis
• Ehrlich ascites tumour cells