title: Suitability of invertebrate and vertebrate cells in a portable impedance-based toxicity sensor: temperature mediated impacts on long-term survival.
abstract: Using ECIS (electric cell-substrate impedance sensing) to monitor the impedance of vertebrate cell monolayers provides a sensitive measure of toxicity for a wide range of chemical toxicants. One major limitation to using a cell-based sensor for chemical toxicant detection in the field is the difficulty in maintaining cell viability over extended periods of time prior to use. This research was performed to identify cell lines suitable for ECIS-based toxicity sensing under field conditions. A variety of invertebrate and vertebrate cell lines were screened for their abilities to be stored for extended periods of time on an enclosed fluidic biochip with minimal maintenance. Three of the ten cell lines screened exhibited favorable portability characteristics on the biochips. Interestingly, all three cell lines were derived from ectothermic vertebrates, and the storage temperature that allowed long-term cell survival on the enclosed fluidic biochips was also at the lower end of reported body temperature for the organism, suggesting that reduced cellular metabolism may be essential for longterm survival on the biochip. Future work with the ectothermic vertebrate cells will characterize their sensitivity to a wide range of chemical toxicants to determine if they are good candidates for use in a field portable toxicity sensor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York at Cortland, Cortland, NY 13045-1265, United States. Electronic address: Theresa.curtis@cortland.edu.
authors.forename: T M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Curtis
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: B D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Gerlach
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Brennan
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Widder
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: van der Schalie
authors.forename: N T K
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Vo
authors.forename: N C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Bols
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival; D054750:Ecotoxicology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D017097:Electric Impedance; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D005399:Fishes; D007313:Insecta; D008116:Lizards; D051379:Mice; D055617:Micro-Electrical-Mechanical Systems; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000379:methods; D011894:Rana pipiens; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013045:Species Specificity; D013696:Temperature; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Biochip; Biosensor; Cell monolayer storage; ECIS; Ectotherms; Electric cell-substrate impedance sensing