title: Electric impedance sensing in cell-substrates for rapid and selective multipotential differentiation capacity monitoring of human mesenchymal stem cells.
abstract: Biosensor systems which enable impedance measurements on adherent cell layers under label-free conditions are considered powerful tools for monitoring specific biological characteristics. A radio frequency identification-based sensor platform was adopted to characterize cultivation and differentiation of human bone marrow-derived multipotent stem cells (bmMSC) over periods of up to several days and weeks. Electric cell-substrate impedance sensing was achieved through fabrication of sensitive elements onto glass substrates which comprised two comb-shaped interdigitated gold electrodes covering an area of 1.8 mm×2 mm. The sensing systems were placed into the wells of a 6-well tissue culture plate, stacked onto a reader unit and could thus be handled and operated under sterile conditions. Continuous measurements were carried out with a sinusoidal voltage of 35 mV at a frequency of 10 kHz. After seeding of human bmMSC, this sensor was able to trace significant impedance changes contingent upon cell spreading and adhesion. The re-usable system was further proven suitable for live examination of cell-substrate attachment or continuous cell monitoring up to several weeks. Induction of either osteogenic or adipogenic differentiation could be validated in bmMSC cultures within a few days, in contrast to state-of-the-art protocols, which require several weeks of cultivation time. In the context of medical cell production in a GMP-compliant process, the here presented interdigitated electric microsensor technology allows the documentation of MSC quality in a fast, efficient and reliable fashion.
authors.affiliation: Stem Cell Aging, Institute for Biomedical Aging Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reitinger
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wissenwasser
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kapferer
authors.forename: Rudolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Heer
authors.forename: Günter
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lepperdinger
mesh_terms: D050156:Adipogenesis; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D017097:Electric Impedance; D006801:Humans; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D010012:Osteogenesis