title: Electrical Stimulation of NIH-3T3 Cells with Platinum-PEDOT-Electrodes Integrated in a Bioreactor.
abstract: The objective of this work involves the development and integration of electrodes for the electrical stimulation of cells within a bioreactor. Electrodes need to fit properties such as biocompatibility, large reversible charge transfer and high flexibility in view of their future application as implants on the tympanic membrane. Flexible thin-film platinum-poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene)-electrodes on a poly(ethylene terephthalate)-foil manufactured using microsystems technology were integrated into a bioreactor based on the design of a 24 well plate. The murine fibroblast cell line NIH-3T3 was cultured on the foil electrodes and the cells were stimulated with direct voltage and unipolar pulsed voltage. The amplitude, the pulse length and the ratio of pulse to pause were varied. The stimulated cells were stained in order to determine the angle between the cell cleavage plane of the dividing cells and the vector of the electric field. These angles were subsequently used to calculate the polarization index, which is a measure of the orientation of the metaphase plane of dividing cells that occurs for example during wound healing or embryonic morphogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Germany.
authors.forename: Grit
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Blume
authors.affiliation: Institute of Micro System Technology, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Germany.
authors.forename: Wiebke
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Müller-Wichards
authors.affiliation: Institute of Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Germany.
authors.forename: Christiane
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Goepfert
authors.affiliation: Institute of Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Germany.
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pörtner
authors.affiliation: Institute of Micro System Technology, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Germany.
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Müller
keywords: Electrical stimulation; cell culture; fibroblasts; integrated biocompatible electrodes; orientation of metaphase plate; polarization index.