• Question: why did you put the tissue in a water bath

    Asked by sammybowden to Fiona on 21 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Fiona Hatch

      Fiona Hatch answered on 21 Mar 2012:

      I try to make sure that the heart is in the same conditions as it would be in the body.

      So I give it lots of nutrients that it can use for energy, I pump oxygen through the solution it is in. And I also make sure it is at body temperature which is around 37C. To keep it at that temperature I use a water bath that surrounds the solution and keeps it heated to that temperature.

      If the solution gets too cold the heart would beat slower, if its too high then the heart would beat faster. And I want to make sure this doesn’t happen as it would make all my experiments not the same and so I would not be able to use any information I record.

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