Characterization of Retinal Pigmented Epithelium Cells Density on a MicroElectrode Array Using Impedance Spectroscopy

Abstract

This work is aiming at using impedance measurements on MicroElectrode Array (MEA) in order to evaluate the cellular density at its surface. As the context of these measurements is retinal implants, the retinal pigmented epithelium cells (RPE) are used as cellular model. We measured the impedance changes at 4 different locations of the MEA during 13 days (approximately one measure every two days) and the cell density by manually counting them by microscope imaging taken just after the impedance measurement. A correlation between the cell density and the impedance measurement's change can be observed. The electrode interfaces and the biological cells are associated with an electrical model taking into account the ionic conduction (resistance) and polarization effects (capacitance).