title: A diamond-based biosensor for the recording of neuronal activity.
abstract: We have developed a device for recording the extracellular electrical activity of cultured neuronal networks based on a hydrogen terminated (H-terminated) conductive diamond. GT1-7 cells, a neuronal cell line showing spontaneous action potentials firing, could maintain their functional properties for days in culture when plated on the H-terminated diamond surface. The recorded extracellular electrical activity appeared in the form of well-resolved bursts of fast and slow biphasic signals with a mean duration of about 8ms for the fast and 60ms for the slow events. The time courses of these signals were in good agreement with those recorded by means of conventional microelectrode array (MEAs) and with the negative derivative of the action potentials intracellularly recorded with the patch clamp technique from single cells. Thus, although hydrophobic in nature, the conductive H-terminated diamond surface is able to reveal the spontaneous electrical activity of neurons mainly by capacitative coupling to the cell membrane. Having previously shown that the optical properties of H-terminated diamond allow to record cellular activity by means of fluorescent probes (Ariano, P., Baldelli, P., Carbone, E., Giardino, A., Lo Giudice, A., Lovisolo, D., Manfredotti, C., Novara, M., Sternschulte, H., Vittone, E., 2005. Diam. Relat. Mater. 14, 669-674), we now provide evidence for the feasibility of using diamond-based cellular biosensors for multiparametrical recordings of electrical activity from living cells.
authors.affiliation: University of Torino, NIS Centre of Excellence, Department of Animal and Human Biology, Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ariano
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lo Giudice
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marcantoni
authors.forename: Ettore
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vittone
authors.forename: Emilio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Carbone
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lovisolo
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000502:physiology*; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D002460:Cell Line; D018130:Diamond / Q000737:chemistry*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D051379:Mice; D008839:Microelectrodes; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D018130:Diamond