The Hot Plate Test allows the measurement of the reaction time of mice or rats which are dropped on a heated surface and thus confronted with a heat stimulus applied to the plantar surface. When a central analgesic is administered to the animals, this reaction time is markedly increased.

Bioseb’s Hot Plate test shows some unique features as:

• No boiling liquids: avoids the involved inconvenience of vertical stack for vapour condensation, temperature changes brought by mixture alterations, etc.

• A unique design for homogeneous and controlled heating: plate is made out of a pure aluminium slab combined with high-surface heating elements. The embedded electronic including a temperature regulator, a sensor and “proportional” circuit to minimize overshoot allows a perfect temperature control.

• A user friendly interface: the pedal switch, connected to a built in electronic timer with 0.01 second precision for accurate timing of the animals' reaction, allows starting and stopping of the system while keeping operator’s hands free. Temperature is selectable in the range of 45-65 ºC, and kept within 0.1 ºC of target temperature. Embedded display allows direct reading of temperature and time.

• A stand-alone instrument: no PC is required for running the hot plate test, although you have the possibility to send collected data to a PC through the integrated RS232 interface, using the included SEDACOM software.

• An animal-friendly design: the animal is unrestrained and unhandled. This avoids stress and lets animal move freely as soon as the sensitivity treshold has been reached - operator can then immediatly interrupt the experience. Additionnaly, an automatic "humane cut-off" switches off the instrument after 30 seconds to avoid animal injuries.

Supplied with: clear removable Perpex hood to maintain animal, RS232 kit with SEDACOM software