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The founders of PeCon, Siegwald Pentz and Heide Hörler, worked together for many years at the University of Ulm in the department of clinical genetics. They focused on the in vitro cultivation of primary cells, tissues and permanent cell lines.

Fluorescent detection of actin fibres in a cardiac muscle cell.
© 2003 - PeCon GmbH
When they started working with cardiac muscle cells from rodents they had to face many problems with their cultivation and behaviour, especially during microscopic observation. Incubated at ideal environmental conditions in a standard laboratory incubator the cells showed cell division and differentiation to self contracting cells. But during microscopic observation the amplitude and frequency of the contractions changed substantially.

This was the time point when Dr. Pentz and Mrs. Hörler started with the development of units to control temperature and CO2-concentration on the microscope. With the use of these incubation systems they were able to achieve a prolonged stability of the cardiac muscle cell contractions during microscopic observation. The incubation systems enabled them to establish an assay for the in vitro detection of the influence of unknown test substances on the contraction frequency and amplitude of cardiac muscle cells. A valuable tool to detect potential negative effects of newly synthesized chemical and pharmaceutical compounds on the cardiovascular system.

In the light of the good personal relationship with Carl Zeiss, Göttingen and Leica, Wetzlar they started a collaboration and established over many years of research and development a large product range for different microscopic applications, which is available worldwide via Carl Zeiss and Leica. The products of PeCon are continuously improved and we are developing new ways and techniques to offer you the best and most convenient way for incubating cell and tissue cultures on the microscope.