Flaming/Brown Micropipette Puller Review

April 13, 2017

Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience
Graduate student

Overall

Performance

Ease-of-Optimization

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Company:

Sutter Instrument Company

Product Name:

P-97 Flaming/Brown Micropipette Puller 

Catalog Number:

p97

This instrument is used to pull micropipettes for electrophysiology experiments of all types.

Experimental Design and Results Summary

Application

Whole-cell, voltage clamp recordings from brain slices

Starting Material

Micropipettes

Protocol Overview

Place glass in one clamp and tighten, slide through filament and tighten second clamp. Loosen first clamp and make sure filament is lined up in the center of the glass, and then tighten. Select program and press pull.

Tips

Always make sure filament is properly positioned and shaped. This puller is very sensitive to heat and humidity. If the puller is being used by many people throughout the day, it may begin to start pulling pipettes of higher resistance. With this in mind, it is best to discard the first few pipettes you pull.

Results Summary

Two symmetrical pipettes with tip sizes ranging from 0.06 - 3 um can be pulled simultaneously. Instrument can store up to 100 programs for pulling pipettes used for a variety of purposes (sharp electrode recording, in vivo extracellular recording, whole-cell recording from brain slices, etc.). I use this instrument to pull pipettes with resistances of 3.2 - 4.0 MOhms.

Features Summary

Can store up to 100 programs, Ramp test for new types of glass, 2 pipettes with each pull.

DOI or PMID #

N/A

Additional Notes

N/A

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Summary

The Good

Puller can simultaneously pull 2 pipettes within a reasonable range of resistances (2-4 MOhm, for instance, for whole-cell recordings). Comes with Pipette Cookbook, which can aid in optimizing programs.

The Bad

Puller is less consistent when it has been used very frequently during a short period of time due to temperature increase. This can make it difficult to optimize protocols. Newer models have features to circumvent or reduce these issues.

The Bottom Line

We have used this puller for many many years to reliably pull micropipettes suitable for whole-cell and other in vitro and in vivo electrophysiology experiments. While newer models may have features to improve variability in tip size with changing temperature, this machine is sufficient for our purposes.

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