SEM and ECIS Investigation of Cells Cultured on Nanopillar Modified Interdigitated Impedance Electrodes for Analysis of Cell Growth and Cytotoxicity of Potential Anticancer Drugs

Abstract

Cell‐based biosensors treat living cells as sensing elements and are able to detect the functional information of biologically active analytes. Monitoring cytotoxicity with high sensitivity, rapidity and at low cost is of great interest in the fields of clinical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, food safety and security. This research investigates the behaviour of different cell types on nanostructured architectures. The development of cell‐based assays using bioimpedance devices has the potential of screening anti‐cancer drugs; these have a potential impact for developing new techniques and tools for the analysis of cells in the bio‐pharma industry. Gold impedance electrodes have been successfully fabricated for impedance measurement on cells cultured on the electrode surface which was modified with gold nanopillars with a height of 60 nm and 150 nm diameter in a highly ordered layout thanks to the e‐beam lithography technique. This article investigates the effects on the sensitivity achieved with the ECIS (Electric Cell‐substrate Impedance Spectroscopy) measurements while monitoring the cytotoxicity of two different drugs (Antrodia Camphorata extract and Nicotine) on different cell lines (HeLa, A549 and BALBc 3T3) cultured on the nanostructured devices. The change of morphology of cells growing on the nanostructured electrodes was also investigated through SEM imaging.

Nanoenabling electrochemical sensors for life sciences applications

“…31,32 However, with the rapid development of nanotechnology, enabling tools have emerged where nano-structured electrodes can be fabricated more reproducibly. [33][34][35] The development of nano-structured electrodes for AC impedance measurement offers significant advantages over its micro-structured counterpart. These include, enlargement of the surface area, reduced double layer capacitance, fast convergence to a steady-state signal, better detection limits and increased signal to noise ratios.…”

Fabrication of Fine Electrodes on the Tip of Hypodermic Needle Using Photoresist Spray Coating and Flexible Photomask for Biomedical Applications

“…In order to electrically localize the target tissues in the body, a hypodermic needle incorporating an electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) sensor has been introduced as EIS-on-a-needle (EoN) 6 . The EIS sensor is currently utilized in the field of biomedical engineering for applications such as DNA detection 7,8,9 , bacteria/virus detection 10,11,12 , and analysis on cells/tissues 13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22 . The EoN can discriminate between dissimilar materials in a frequency domain based on their electrical conductivity and permittivity.…”