On-chip testing device for electrochemotherapeutic effects on human breast cells

Abstract

A microfabricated cell-based testing device for electrochemotherapy (ECT) has been developed by miniaturizing the widely used clinical electroporator with a two-needle array into two-dimensional planar electrodes while keeping the similarity of the electric field strength distribution. In this device, all the biological processes from cell culture to electroporation and final cell-based assays were carried out on a chip using a conventional 2D cell culture method, and the multiple electrochemotherapeutic assays could be realized by exploiting the six electroporation sites in a single device. With the proposed platform, the electroporation rate was evaluated with propidium iodide and cell proliferation after 48 h of electrochemotherapy with bleomycin was determined with T47D human breast ductal carcinoma cell line in various electric field strengths and drug concentrations. This microsystem has several advantages over conventional cuvette type electroporation assay, such as multiple assays on a chip, on-chip based operation from cell culture to final assay, and having similar electric field distribution as that of the clinical electroporator. As the clinical trials of electrochemotherapy are being carried out, this new platform is expected to have valuable applications in basic in vitro ECT studies, drug discovery, and development of clinical ECT equipment.

The effects of the electric fields on hydrogels to achieve antitumoral drug release

“…This result means that BLM is not released from the GG hydrogel without an electric pulse, at least at the three different concentrations tested. As in the previous tested treatment it is possible to note that the percentage of adhered HCAEC and NIH3T3 was mainly a function of the electric fields than the BLM present in the GG hydrogel [22]. In fact it was possible to note that percentage variations of both NIH3T3 and HCAEC were similar in the treatments with all three different BLM amounts (30,50, and 100 μg).…”

A cell electroporation and viability monitoring chip using a single channel with multiple electric field zones

“…The transmembrane potential from 0.4V to 1V [6] increases the cell membrane permeability without damaging the cells. At the transmembrane potential over 1V [7], however, the cell viability decreases due to the irreversible breakdown of cell membrane.…”

Biomedical microdevice for analyzing the effect of electrochemotherapy on cancer cells

“…To overcome these technical limitations, our group recently proposed a novel ECT testing platform [4] by mimicking a two-needle clinical electroporator, and showed the possibility as an enabling tool in the cell-based ECT study.…”