JP2012062064A - Biomaterial transportation container - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a practically superior biomaterial transportation container capable of transporting a biomaterial while keeping the state of the biomaterial as it is.SOLUTION: There is provided the biomaterial transportation container including: an exterior heat-insulating container 10 with a part able to be opened and closed, surrounding wall faces thereof being formed of a heat insulating material; an interior heat-insulating container (thermos bottle type bucket) 20 with a part able to be opened and closed, the interior heat-insulating container being able to be accommodated in an internal space of the exterior heat-insulating container and having surrounding wall faces formed of a heat-insulating material; and a cold-storage material to be contained within the interior heat-insulating container together with a capsule-like container C contained with the biomaterial. Heavy water is used for a cold-storage material member 30 to be contained within the interior of the heat-insulating container together with the biomaterial.

Description

  The present invention relates to a transport container used for transporting a substance from a certain point including, for example, a place where the substance is stored to another point such as a place where the substance is used. The present invention relates to a biomaterial transport container for transporting organic substances such as microorganisms, proteins, and the like (hereinafter referred to as “biomaterial”).

  In general, when transporting biological materials that are organic substances such as the cells, microorganisms, and proteins described above, the sample is often transported in a state maintained at a low temperature, and a transport storage container used for such low-temperature transport. For example, a structure in which ice is sealed in a vacuum heat insulating container or liquid nitrogen as a refrigerant is filled to keep the sample cold is already known and widely used.

  On the other hand, according to the following Patent Document 1, without using a refrigerant that evaporates or evaporates, such as liquid nitrogen described above, a storage container that allows the recipient of the sample to easily check its soundness at the time of receipt, Transportation support systems for this purpose are already known. The storage container disclosed in Patent Document 1 has a structure in which it is cooled and held by a Stirling refrigerator (a constant temperature of about −140 ° C. or less is generated by helium gas), and is kept in a room temperature region in the storage container. The sensor element that changes its chemical or physical properties due to the adhesion of contaminants is arranged, and the detector element is inspected from the outside of the container in a non-contact manner. The presence or absence can be inspected.

JP 2009-288234 A

  However, the transport container according to the prior art described above transports the material to be transported in a state of being frozen and stored with ice, liquid nitrogen, or helium gas. Therefore, the structure of the container is complicated and expensive. It was. In particular, the storage container described in Patent Document 1 has an excellent function from its structure, however, such a container itself is expensive, and therefore, as a general biomaterial transport container. Was difficult to adopt.

  In particular, in recent years, the above-described biomaterials do not require until frozen storage, but rather are required to be transported in a state of being preserved while maintaining the state of the living body without freezing intracellular moisture. ing.

  Therefore, the present invention has been achieved in view of the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, and more specifically, without requiring an expensive container and freezing the moisture in the cells of the biological material. It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel transport container for biomaterials that can be transported in a preserved state while maintaining the state of the living body.

  In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, first, a container for transporting a biomaterial, in which a surrounding wall surface is made of a heat insulating material, and a part thereof can be opened and closed. A container, an internal heat insulating container that can be accommodated in the internal space of the heat insulating container, and the surrounding wall surface is made of a heat insulating material, and a part of which can be opened and closed, and a biomaterial inside the internal heat insulating container There is provided a biomaterial transport container including a cold storage material stored therein, wherein the biomaterial transport container uses heavy water as a cold storage material stored together with the biomaterial in the internal heat insulating container.

  Further, in the present invention, in the biomaterial transport container described above, the outer heat insulating container is preferably configured by attaching a vacuum heat insulating panel to the inner wall surface of a box-shaped container including a lid made of polystyrene foam, Or it is preferable that the said internal heat insulation container is a metal container of the substantially cylindrical shape which formed the vacuum space between the metal outer wall board and the metal inner wall board including the cover body.

  Further, according to the present invention, in the biomaterial transport container described above, in the biomaterial transport container described in claim 1, the cold insulation material is filled in a waterproof sealed bag formed of a flexible resin film. It is preferable that the inside of the internal heat insulating container is kept at about 4 ° C. by the cold insulating material during transportation.

  That is, according to the present invention described above, it is possible to transport the biological material in a state of being preserved while maintaining the state of the living body without freezing the intracellular moisture without requiring an expensive container. Thus, it is possible to exert a very excellent effect practically by providing a transport container for a new biomaterial.

It is an expansion | deployment perspective view which shows the detail of the exterior heat insulation container which comprises a part of transport container of the biomaterial which becomes one embodiment of this invention. It is a perspective view including the partial cross section which shows the detail of the inner side heat insulation container which comprises a part of transport container of the biomaterial which becomes one embodiment of this invention. It is a perspective view including the partial cross section which shows the detail of the cold insulating member which comprises a part of transport container of the biomaterial which becomes one embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the detail in the case of conveying a biomaterial using the said exterior heat insulation container, an internal heat insulation container, and a cold insulating member. It is a figure which shows an example (graph) of a change of the container internal temperature at the time of accommodating biomaterial in the transport container which becomes this invention.

  Hereinafter, a transport container for biomaterials according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  First, FIG. 1 attached herewith shows a part of a biomaterial transport container according to the present invention, that is, an exterior heat insulating container 10 constituting the outside thereof. As is clear from this figure, the exterior heat insulating container 10 also has a function as a cushioning material, and, for example, as represented by urethane foam, a large number of bubbles are formed inside by foaming of resin. Therefore, it is formed of a resin material that can be used as a heat insulating material, and is formed of a main body 11 that has an opening 12 at the top and a rectangular (box-like) appearance. Furthermore, a lid 13 is formed of a heat insulating material in the same manner as described above and is formed in a shape (in this example, a square plate shape) that covers the upper opening 12 of the container body. The lid 13 is placed and fixed on the opening 12 to close the exterior heat insulating container 10 against the outside air. That is, the exterior heat insulating container 10 can be opened and closed through the opening 12, and the inside can be sealed by the lid 13.

  In the space formed inside the container main body, plate-like vacuum heat insulating plates 14, 14... (6 sheets in total) are attached to the inner wall surface of the lid 13 together with the surrounding wall surface including the bottom surface. Attached and fixed. The plate-like vacuum heat insulating plate 14 is a heat insulating plate constituting a heat insulating wall of a refrigerator or the like, and the detailed structure thereof is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 5-200902 and 7-88986. You can use what is known.

  Next, FIG. 2 attached shows an inner heat insulating container (a thermos bucket) 20 having a cylindrical outer shape, which is inserted into a space formed inside the outer heat insulating container 10 described above. The inner heat insulating container 20 is formed of, for example, a metal such as stainless steel, and as is apparent from the figure, a so-called thermos container (bucket) is formed by forming a vacuum space between the outer wall and the inner wall. A main body 21 is provided. An opening 22 is formed in the upper part of the container (bucket) body 21, and a thermos lid 23 is provided for sealing and sealing the opening 22. Moreover, the code | symbol 24 in a figure has attached the handle | steering-wheel (handle) for rotating when it is rotatably attached to the outer side surface of the said internal heat insulation container (macro bottle type bucket) 20, and a person conveys by hand, Reference numerals 25 and 26 denote a hook for fixing the lid 23 on the opening 22 of the container (bucket) main body 21 and its fixture. Reference numeral 27 denotes a handle (handle) for gripping the lid body 23.

  Further, in FIG. 3 attached, the above-mentioned internal heat insulating container (a thermos bucket) 20 together with substances to be transported from one point to another, particularly organic substances (biomaterials) such as cells, microorganisms, proteins, etc. A cold insulation member 30 housed inside is shown. As shown in the figure, the cold insulation member 30 is a liquid having a melting point of about 4 ° C. in a waterproof sealed bag formed of a flexible resin film, for example, inside a tubular resin member 31 made of vinyl or the like. A substance (cold material) is filled and sealed with a predetermined size (length). As this liquid substance (cold material), for example, heavy water (Deuterium Oxide: melting point = 3.8 ° C.) HW is used. In addition, the code | symbol 32 in a figure has shown the sealing part formed in the both ends of the tubular resin member 31. FIG. In addition, the symbol HW ′ indicates heavy water that has become a solid phase (so-called ice) by freezing.

  Thus, by using heavy water as a cold insulation material, a phase change occurs at approximately 4 ° C. (more precisely, 3.8 ° C.). If the inside of the thermos bucket 20 is filled (and if the heat insulating container 20 is housed in the outer heat insulating container 10 described above), the internal temperature is about 4 ° C. (accurately) over a long period of time. Can be kept almost constant at 3.8 ° C.).

  Next, details will be described with reference to the attached FIG. 4 when a biomaterial is transported using the above-described outer heat insulating container 10, the inner heat insulating container 20, and the cold insulation member 30.

  First, a substance to be transported, that is, an organic substance (biological material) such as a cell, a microorganism, or a protein is stored in, for example, a capsule-like container C to prepare a transported object. After that, the transported object stored in the container C is temporarily positioned around the inside of the internal heat insulating container 20 stabilized at a temperature of about 4 ° C., that is, at the substantially central portion of the internal space. Along with the frozen cold insulation member 30, further, it is filled with a foamed polystyrene or sponge piece P as a filler, and then the opening 22 is sealed by the lid 23 (at this time, for example, the hook 25 or the fixing described above) Tool 26).

  Further, the internal heat insulating container 20 is inserted into the exterior heat insulating container 10 composed of the urethane foam also having the function as a buffer material and the plate-like vacuum heat insulating plates 14, 14. The lid 13 is sealed with an adhesive tape or the like. And the exterior heat insulation container 10 which inserted the internal heat insulation container 20 in the inside is shipped toward a desired destination point using cargo flights, such as an air mail, a railroad service, and a truck service, for example.

  Next, an example of a change in the container internal temperature when the biomaterial is stored in the transport container according to the embodiment of the present invention described above is shown in FIG. In the graph of this figure, the vertical axis indicates the temperature inside the container (in particular, the temperature of the central portion of the internal heat insulating container 20 (where the biomaterial is located)), and the horizontal axis indicates the elapsed time. .

  As is clear from the graph of the figure, the central portion of the inner heat insulating container 20 is in a low temperature state of 4 ° C. or lower for the first few hours (about 3 hours), but after that, near the melting point of heavy water as a cold insulation material. The temperature became constant at approximately 4 ° C., and this constant temperature state continued until 92 hours passed (see the arrow in the figure). This example shows the case where 2 Kg of the cold insulating material is used, but when the amount of the cold insulating material is further increased to 5 kg, the state at a constant temperature of about 4 ° C. is further extended for about 230 hours. It was possible to last for a period of time.

  As described above, according to the transport container according to the embodiment of the present invention, when the inside of the internal heat insulation container 20 (particularly, the central portion of the internal heat insulation container 20) becomes constant at a temperature of about 4 ° C., If an organic substance (biological material) such as cells, microorganisms, and proteins is accommodated inside the capsule-like container C, for example, the biomaterial can be used for a long period of about 90 to 220 hours. The intracellular moisture is not frozen and can be transported to a desired place while maintaining a good state.

  Further, according to the fact that the exterior heat insulating container is constructed by attaching the vacuum heat insulating panel to the inner wall surface of the box-shaped container including the lid made of polystyrene foam, it is relatively inexpensive without requiring an expensive container, This makes it possible to increase the cold insulation power of the entire transport container, and enables longer-time transport. In addition, the internal heat insulating container is a metal container having a substantially cylindrical outer shape in which a vacuum space is formed between the metal outer wall plate and the metal inner wall plate including the lid. In addition, organic substances (biomaterials) such as microorganisms and proteins can be preserved, and a higher cold insulation power can be maintained.

  Furthermore, by filling heavy water into a waterproof sealed bag formed of a flexible resin film as a cold insulation material, it is necessary depending on the amount of organic substance (biological material) to be transported and the time required for transport. It becomes possible to appropriately fill the internal heat insulating container 20 with an amount of the cold insulating material according to the above.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Exterior heat insulation container, 11 ... Main body, 12 ... Opening part, 13 ... Lid body, 14 ... Vacuum heat insulation board, 20 ... Internal heat insulation container (thermos bucket), 21 ... Container (bucket) main body, 22 ... Opening part, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 23 ... Lid body, 30 ... Cold-retaining member, 31 ... Tubular resin member, HW ... Heavy water, HW '... Heavy water (ice) of solid phase, C ... Capsule container, P ... Styrofoam or sponge piece.

Claims (5)

A container for transporting biomaterials,
An exterior heat insulating container in which the surrounding wall surface is made of a heat insulating material, and a part thereof can be opened and closed,
An internal heat insulating container that can be accommodated in the internal space of the heat insulating container, and the surrounding wall surface is made of a heat insulating material, and a part thereof can be opened and closed;
A biomaterial transport container comprising a cold insulation material housed together with a biomaterial inside the internal heat insulation container,
A transport container for biomaterials, characterized in that heavy water is used as a cold insulation material stored together with the biomaterials in the internal heat insulation container.   The biomaterial transport container according to claim 1, wherein the outer heat insulating container is configured by attaching a vacuum heat insulating panel to an inner wall surface of a box-shaped container including a lid made of polystyrene foam. Shipping container.   2. The biomaterial transport container according to claim 1, wherein the inner heat insulating container is a metal container having a substantially cylindrical shape in which a vacuum space is formed between a metal outer wall plate and a metal inner wall plate including a lid. A biomaterial transport container characterized by the above.   2. The biomaterial transport container according to claim 1, wherein the cold insulation material is filled in a waterproof sealed bag formed of a flexible resin film.   2. The biomaterial transport container according to claim 1, wherein the inside of the internal heat insulating container is kept at approximately 4 ° C. by the cold insulation material during transport.

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