title: Dielectric screening of early differentiation patterns in mesenchymal stem cells induced by steroid hormones.
abstract: In the framework of this study, target identification and localization of differentiation patterns by means of dielectric spectroscopy is presented. Here, a primary pre-osteoblastic bone marrow-derived MBA-15 cellular system was used to study the variations in the dielectric properties of mesenchymal stem cells while exposed to differentiation regulators. Using the fundamentals of mixed dielectric theories combined with finite numerical tools, the permittivity spectra of MBA-15 cell suspensions have been uniquely analyzed after being activated by steroid hormones to express osteogenic phenotypes. Following the spectral analysis, significant variations were revealed in the dielectric properties of the activated cells in comparison to the untreated populations. Based on the differentiation patterns of MBA-15, the electrical modifications were found to be highly correlated with the activation of specific cellular mechanisms which directly react to the hormonal inductions. In addition, by describing the dielectric dispersion in terms of transfer functions, it is shown that the spectral perturbations are well adapted to variations in the electrical characteristics of the cells. The reported findings vastly emphasize the tight correlation between the cellular and electrical state of the differentiated cells. It therefore emphasizes the vast abilities of impedance-based techniques as potential screening tools for stem cell analysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Electronics, Faculty of Engineering, Tel-Aviv University, Israel. amitron@eng.tau.ac.il
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ron
authors.forename: Irena
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Shur
authors.forename: Ramiz
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Daniel
authors.forename: Ragini Raj
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fishelson
authors.forename: Nathan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Croitoru
authors.forename: Dafna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Benayahu
authors.forename: Yosi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shacham-Diamand
mesh_terms: D001854:Bone Marrow Cells / Q000166:cytology; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects*; D002460:Cell Line; D016764:Cell Polarity; D003907:Dexamethasone / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017097:Electric Impedance; D004958:Estradiol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones / Q000494:pharmacology*; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects*; D008954:Models, Biological; D010012:Osteogenesis / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones; D004958:Estradiol; D003907:Dexamethasone