What is the µ-Slide 15 Well 3D Glass Bottom?

Fifteen wells on a standard slide footprint, each built as an inner well 4 mm across and 0.8 mm deep that takes 10 µl of gel, with an upper well above it holding 50 µl of medium. The bottom is No. 1.5H glass at 170 µm ± 5 µm. It used to be sold as the µ-Slide Angiogenesis Glass Bottom.

The inner well geometry is the whole design. Ten microlitres of Matrigel, collagen or agarose sets with a flat top rather than a meniscus, so the cells that form tubes on it sit in one focal plane and the whole well is in focus at once.

Ten microlitres per well

Gel is the expensive part of a tube formation assay. Fifteen wells at 10 µl is 150 µl of Matrigel for a fifteen condition experiment. Anyone who has run the same assay in a 96 well plate knows what that comparison looks like.

Where I would not spend the money

The polymer bottom version, 81506, is the same slide with a #1.5 polymer coverslip and it is cheaper. Tube formation assays are usually scored at low magnification on brightfield or with a widefield fluorophore, and for that the polymer bottom is enough. Buy the glass when you are also doing TIRF or single molecule imaging on the same samples, or when a high NA oil objective is going onto these wells.

Key Features

• No. 1.5H glass coverslip bottom, 170 µm ± 5 µm, Schott D 263 M
• Fifteen wells, 10 µl of gel and 50 µl of medium each
• Inner well 4 mm across and 0.8 mm deep, no gel meniscus
• Works with Matrigel, collagen and agarose
• Standard 25.5 x 75.5 mm slide footprint, 15, 90 or 120 per box