Impedance Sensing for Monitoring Neuronal Coverage and Comparison With Microscopy

• Published in: IEEE transactions on biomedical engineering 2010-10, Vol.57 (10), p.2379-2385
• Main Authors: Wiertz, R. W. F., Rutten, W. L. C., Marani, E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aggregation; Animal cells; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Cell Adhesion; Cells (biology); Cells, Cultured; Cerebral Cortex - cytology; Electric Impedance; electric impedance sensing (IS); Electrodes; Eukaryotic cell cultures; Frequency; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Glass; Immune system; Investigative techniques, diagnostic techniques (general aspects); Medical sciences; Methods. Procedures. Technologies; Microscopy; Microscopy - methods; Miscellaneous; Miscellaneous. Technology; Monitoring; Morphology; neuronal cell coverage; neuronal cultures; Neurons; Neurons - physiology; Pathology. Cytology. Biochemistry. Spectrometry. Miscellaneous investigative techniques; Rats; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; Surface impedance
• ISSN: 0018-9294; 1558-2531
• DOI: 10.1109/TBME.2010.2055052

We investigated the applicability of electric impedance sensing (IS) to monitor the coverage of adhered dissociated neuronal cells on glass substrates with embedded electrodes. IS is a sensitive method for the quantification of changes in cell morphology and cell mobility, making it suitable to study aggregation kinetics. Various sizes of electrodes were compared for the real-time recording of the impedance of adhering cells, at eight frequencies (range: 5 Hz-20 kHz). The real part of the impedance showed to be most sensitive at frequencies of 10 and 20 kHz for the two largest electrodes (7850 and 125 600 μm 2 ). Compared to simultaneous microscopic evaluation of cell coverage and cell spreading, IS shows more detail.