Animal liver preparation

Cut the liver into small pieces, say, about 3 x 3 x 3 mm or perhaps smaller. Remove any connective tissue and tough blood vessels if possible. These items tend to get caught up in the stator or in some cases wrap themselves around the rotor and never get processed. If it is impossible to remove such components, then go ahead and see what happens. If the connective tissue and blood vessels cannot be processed with the standard rotor, then a knife-type rotor is recommended.

Start processing at about one-half the speed of the KINEMATICA POLYTRON^® homogenizer or lower if possible for 30 seconds. Check the material under a microscope or however you determine is best to see the quality of the homogenate. If the homogenate still has chunks in it or you want further breakdown of the components, then give it another 30-second run. Keep checking and repeating until the desired result is obtained. If there are too many damaged cell components after a run, then either reduce the speed (if after the first run) or the time of the run and try again. After a few runs or trials, you will know the ideal speed setting and processing time for producing the optimal liver homogenate.

The above procedure has been used on all sizes of livers from mouse and rat livers to whole bovine liver. Of course, for the bovine liver you would want to use Model PT 6100 and one of its larger generators.