Making Diluted Solutions of MicroSpheres
Procedure - From liquid with ~ 10% solids
- Shake primary microsphere bottle to evenly disperse the particles.
- Remove 100ul of cloudy white microsphere solution and dilute with 20ml of deionized water (200:1 dilution).
Anti-Stick Agents
- Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) at 20-25mg/ml in deionized water can be applied to the glass microscope slide (and coverslip) and allowed to evaporate off (to inhibit particle sticking to the glass surfaces).
- For non-biological particles, 1% polyethylene glycol can be added to the microsphere solution as an anti-stick agent.
- For biological particles the BSA application and Phosphate-Buffered Saline (PBS) (Sigma-Aldrich P5368-10PAK) can be used as anti-stick agents.
- If particles begin to stick to the slide surfaces, a 3 minute sonication can increase the mobility of particles.
Students: If this recipe is inadequate (too many or too few particles) please revise.
