Microfluidic Sensing System with a Multichannel Surface Plasmon Resonance Chip: Damage-Free Characterization of Cells by Pattern Recognition

Abstract

The development of a versatile sensing strategy for the damage-free characterization of cultured cells is of great importance for both fundamental biological research and industrial applications. Here, we present a pattern-recognition-based cell-sensing approach using a multichannel surface plasmon resonance (SPR) chip. The chip, in which five cysteine derivatives with different structures are immobilized on Au films, is capable of generating five unique SPR sensorgrams for the cell-secreted molecules that are contained in cell culture media. An automatic statistical program was built to acquire kinetic parameters from the SPR sensorgrams and to select optimal parameters as “pattern information” for subsequent multivariate analysis. Our system rapidly (∼10 min) provides the complex information by merely depositing a small amount of cell culture media (∼25 μL) onto the chip, and the amount of information obtained is comparable to that furnished by a combination of conventional laborious biochemical assays. This noninvasive pattern-recognition-based cell-sensing approach could potentially be employed as a versatile tool for characterizing cells.

Advanced Materials and Sensors for Microphysiological Systems: Focus on Electronic and Electrooptical Interfaces

“…This approach characterized normal cells and various cancer cell lines under drug treatments based on their unique SPR patterns (Figure 9b). [ 134 ] As another example, a biomimetic integrated adipose‐tissue‐on‐a‐chip platform consisting of antibody‐conjugated gold nanorods LSPR biosensor microarray was able to detect cytokines secretion from adipose tissue in the range of ≈10–10 000 pg mL −1 . [ 135 ] The platform can quantify adipose tissue response in the course of differentiation and inflammation (Figure 9c).…”

Cell-Based Chemical Safety Assessment and Therapeutic Discovery Using Array-Based Sensors

“…The combination of microfluidics with functional nanomaterials facilitates the rapid and sensitive detection of various bioanalytes [ 100 ]. Kurita et al reported an array-based cell sensing strategy based on a multichannel surface plasmon resonance (SPR) chip, in which five cysteine derivatives with different structures were immobilized on Au films [ 101 ] ( Figure 7 a). When cells flowed into the chip, cell-secreted molecules interacted nonspecifically with cysteine derivatives, generating five unique SPR sensorgrams ( Figure 7 b).…”

“…( b ) Unique SPR response patterns resulting from cross-reactive interactions between cysteine derivatives and cell-secreted molecules. Reproduced with permission from [ 101 ]. Copyright 2020 American Chemical Society.…”

A polymer-based chemical tongue for the non-invasive monitoring of osteogenic stem-cell differentiation by pattern recognition of serum-supplemented spent media

“…12,13 We have recently reported that chemical-tongue strategies that mimic the human taste system are useful for secretome recognition. [14][15][16] The chemical-tongue strategy is a recently emerged analytical technique based primarily on nonspecific interactions, in contrast to conventional specific-recognition-based sensing using antibodies and enzymes. 17 A typical chemical tongue consists of an array of environmentally responsive probes, which mimics taste receptor cells, and pattern-recognition techniques, which mimic information processing in the brain.…”

“…18 The conversion of the multifaceted interactions between the array and the analytes into optical responses, combined with statistical analysis of the resulting multidimensional optical response patterns, has enabled the accurate identification or classification of various bioanalytes ranging from isolated proteins [19][20][21][22][23] and cells 20,[24][25][26][27] to complex serum samples 21,[28][29][30] and fermented beverages. [31][32][33] Using the recognition of complex secretome compositions by chemical tongues, we have successfully detected stem-cell differentiation, 14 fibroblast senescence, 15 and drug responses in hepatoma cells 16 in a non-invasive manner.…”