Adhesion measurement of living cells based on electrical impedance

Abstract

Background: Cells adherence provides specific information about physiology and pathology, the adhesion measurement between living cells and nanostructures can be measured by atomic force microscopy, but this detection technique is difficult to operate and costly. The adhesion height and effective contact area between cells and substrates are also the key factors affecting measurement value of the overall impedance. These factors change with structural parameters of the substrates, so the adhesion measurement between living cells and substrate can be indirectly reflected by the impedance value.

Objective: To establish a mapping relationship between the impedance measurement and the adhesion measurement of living cells. The possibility of dynamic measurement of adhesion is realized by this method, and the experimental process is simplified.

Methods: Laser interference technology was used to prepare nanoarray structures with different periods on the surface of silicon wafers for cells culture. Under the same experimental conditions, the impedance of living cells on the substrates of different cycle sizes were measured. The adhesion between cells and different substrates were analyzed by measuring impedance after the interaction between cells and substrate.

Results: The adhesion of living cells on the substrates of different sizes be analyzed, and the mapping relationship between the impedance and the adhesion measurement was established. The results showed that, the larger the impedance value between cells and substrate, the larger the effective contact area and the smaller the gap between them.

Conclusion: The difference of adhesion height and effective adhesion area between living cells and substrates were obtained. This paper, a new method to measure the adhesion properties of living cells is presented, which provides theoretical basis for the related research.

Keywords: Living cells; adhesion; effective adhesion areas; impedance; nanostructure.