Thanks to technical developments, measurements of cellular metabolism as an indicator of glycolytic and mitochondrial function have become more mainstream in recent years. Such developments include state-of-the-art platforms capable of measuring cellular metabolism in real-time from a variety of models and systems. Included in these platforms are the Oroboros O2K-FluoRespirometer and the Aglient Seahorse Extracellular Flux Analyzer, both of which enable simultaneous measurements of glycolytic and oxidative flux for assessment of glycolytic and mitochondrial activity in a variety of samples from whole pieces of tissue or fibres to suspended and intact cells. With the addition of our new CLARIOstar Plus BMG Labtech Multimode Plate reader with atmospheric control, we can also now multiplex or combine real-time metabolic assays with real-time measurements of cellular health, including viability, cytotoxicity, and apoptosis. Moreover, we can offer high-throughput methods to examine metabolite usage and production, such as glucose and lactate all from the same experimental sample.
The University of Birmingham’s Cellular Health and Metabolism Facility is proud to offer full access to these state-of-the art platforms to support cellular health and metabolic research both nationally and internationally. We offer a full range of services that covers research using basic cell-based models through to clinical samples. Current users of our facility are involved with assessing cellular health and metabolism in a range of cell culture models as well as primary tissues including skeletal muscle, immune cells, platelets, neurons, astrocytes, microglia, adipose tissue, fibroblasts, cancer cells, and drosophila under a range of clinical scenarios such as drug development, diabetes, exercise, cancer, obesity, liver disease, atherosclerosis, sarcopenia, aging, sepsis, trauma and necrosis. Our services also support the pharmaceutical industry to examine the effect of novel drugs on mitochondrial and cellular toxicity.