Electrical Stimulation of NIH-3T3 Cells with Platinum-PEDOT-Electrodes Integrated in a Bioreactor

Abstract

The objective of this work involves the development and integration of electrodes for the electrical stimulation of cells within a bioreactor. Electrodes need to fit properties such as biocompatibility, large reversible charge transfer and high flexibility in view of their future application as implants on the tympanic membrane. Flexible thin-film platinum-poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene)-electrodes on a poly(ethylene terephthalate)-foil manufactured using microsystems technology were integrated into a bioreactor based on the design of a 24 well plate. The murine fibroblast cell line NIH-3T3 was cultured on the foil electrodes and the cells were stimulated with direct voltage and unipolar pulsed voltage. The amplitude, the pulse length and the ratio of pulse to pause were varied. The stimulated cells were stained in order to determine the angle between the cell cleavage plane of the dividing cells and the vector of the electric field. These angles were subsequently used to calculate the polarization index, which is a measure of the orientation of the metaphase plane of dividing cells that occurs for example during wound healing or embryonic morphogenesis.

Establishment of a New Device for Electrical Stimulation of Non-Degenerative Cartilage Cells In Vitro

“…Other partially commercially available systems would be unfavorable for our approach. On the one hand, this is due to the use of direct electrical stimulation [ 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ]. On the other hand, the use of additional, external generators is necessary, which limits parallel parameter optimization [ 49 , 50 , 51 ].…”

Effects of nanostructuration on the electrochemical performance of metallic bioelectrodes

“…In addition, devices for in vitro electrical stimulation and recording are being increasingly studied due to their numerous prospective applications as screening and research tools. Such in vitro devices include, but are not limited to, devices for measuring the electrical impedance of cells to evaluate specific biological activities (e.g., proliferation), 4 devices for inducing specific cell responses by means of low voltage electrical stimulation (e.g., cell migration, differentiation), 3,5,6 and devices for stimulating and/or recording electrical activities of cells using multi-electrode arrays (MEAs) and multipurpose setups (e.g., lab-on-achip). [7][8][9] In both in vivo and in vitro electrical stimulation and recording devices, electrodes are the key components responsible for communicating electrical signals with the extracellular fluid (ECF).…”