Gating a Single Cell: A Label-Free and Real-Time Measurement Method for Cellular Progression

Abstract

There is an ever-growing need for more advanced methods to study the response of cancer cells to new therapies. To determine cancer cells' response from a cell-mortality perspective to various cancer therapies, we report a label-free and real time method to monitor the in-situ response of individual HeLa cells using a Single Cell Gated Transistor (SCGT). As a cell undergoes apoptotic cell death, it experiences changes in morphology and ion concentrations. This change is well in line with the threshold voltage of the SCGT, which has been verified by correlating the data with the cell morphologies by scanning electron microscopy and the ion-concentration analysis by ICP-MS. This SCGT could replace patch clamps to study single cell activity via direct measurement in real time. Importantly, this SCGT can be used to study the electrical response of a single cell to stimuli that leaves the membrane intact.

Investigation on the Direct and Bystander Effects in HeLa Cells Exposed to Very Low α-Radiation Using Electrical Impedance Measurement

“…The indium tin oxide (ITO; Luminescence Technology Corporation, Taiwan) electrode with HeLa cells adhered to the conductive surface served as the working electrode. The treatment of the ITO electrode surface for reducing cell mobility has been described in our previous work . The HeLa cells prepared for different experimental purposes in the cell compartment were transferred to the incubator (37°C, 5% CO 2 atmosphere) for measurement.…”

“…The treatment of the ITO electrode surface for reducing cell mobility has been described in our previous work. 31 The HeLa cells prepared for different experimental purposes in the cell compartment were transferred to the incubator (37°C, 5% CO 2 atmosphere) for measurement. During the impedance measurement, we applied an AC voltage (0.005 V) at 4 kHz frequency, and the output data were obtained for 24 h in terms of the magnitude of the complex impedance (|Z|).…”

Long-term, real-time and label-free live cell image processing and analysis based on a combined algorithm of CellPose and watershed segmentation

“…Moreover, these methods cannot meet the needs of high-throughput data analysis because of the cumbersome relevant statistical analysis [ 6 ]. In order to solve these problems, researchers have proposed a new approach that can provide detailed information on the entire lifecycle of cells by observing and tracking them in real-time and in situ [ [7] , [8] , [9] ]. This method not only greatly deepens our understanding of the physiological properties of cells but can also accelerate drug development processes as it allows us to assess drug cytotoxicity directly and rapidly [ 3 ].…”