Cell growth characterization using multi-electrode bioimpedance spectroscopy

Abstract

Cell growth characterization during culturing is an important issue in a variety of biomedical applications. In this study an electrical bioimpedance spectroscopy-based multi-electrode culture monitoring system was developed to characterize cell growth. A PC12 cell line was cultured for the cell growth study. The bioimpedance variations for PC12 cell growth within the initial 12 h were measured over a range between 1 kHz and 4 MHz at three different medium concentrations. Within this frequency range, the largest bioimpedance value was 1.9 times the smallest bioimpedance value. The phase angle decreased over the range from 1 to 10 kHz when cells were growing. Then, the phase angle approached a constant over the frequency range between 10 kHz and 2 MHz. Thereafter, the phase angle increased rapidly from 20 to 52 degrees during cell culturing between 8 and 12 h at 4 MHz. The maximum cell number after culturing for 12 h increased by 25.8% for the control sites with poly-D-lysine (PDL) pastes. For the normal growth factor, the cell number increased up to 4.78 times from 8 to 12 h, but only 0.96 and 1.60 times for the other two medium growth factors. The correlation coefficients between impedance and cell number were 0.868 (coating with PDL), and 0.836 (without PDL) for the normal concentration medium. Thus, impedance may be used as an index for cell growth characterization.

Fabrication of Fine Electrodes on the Tip of Hypodermic Needle Using Photoresist Spray Coating and Flexible Photomask for Biomedical Applications

“…In order to electrically localize the target tissues in the body, a hypodermic needle incorporating an electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) sensor has been introduced as EIS-on-a-needle (EoN) 6 . The EIS sensor is currently utilized in the field of biomedical engineering for applications such as DNA detection 7,8,9 , bacteria/virus detection 10,11,12 , and analysis on cells/tissues 13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22 . The EoN can discriminate between dissimilar materials in a frequency domain based on their electrical conductivity and permittivity.…”

Determination of tenogenic differentiation in human mesenchymal stem cells by terahertz waves for measurement of the optical property of cellular suspensions

“…Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) using femtosecond laser pulses [30] is one of the most powerful tools because it facilitates the exploration of the optical property of biomolecules in the THz range. For example, bone density diagnosis [31], cancer diagnosis [32], and cell growth characterization [33] can be made. Our research group has been interested in the results of the Markelz et al [34] and Fischer et al [35] studies of the absorption bands for DNA, RNA, and collagen in the THz range, because human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) produce many mRNA and collagen molecules during their differentiation into tenocytes [11,15,21].…”

Development of a Portable Impedance Spectrometer

“…Low-cost alternatives reside in sequential measurements, automatically performed with programmable switching circuits. Relays are useful for laboratory settings, 129 but their high dimensions, weight and power consumption hinder portable applications. Smaller complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)…”