title: Human T cells monitored by impedance spectrometry using field-effect transistor arrays: a novel tool for single-cell adhesion and migration studies.
abstract: Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) play an important role in the immune system by recognizing and eliminating pathogen-infected and tumorigenic cells. In order to achieve their function, T cells have to migrate throughout the whole body and identify the respective targets. In conventional immunology studies, interactions between CTLs and targets are usually investigated using tedious and time-consuming immunofluorescence imaging. However, there is currently no straightforward measurement tool available to examine the interaction strengths. In the present study, adhesion strengths and migration of single human CD8(+) T cells on pre-coated field-effect transistor (FET) devices (i.e. fibronectin, anti-CD3 antibody, and anti-LFA-1 antibody) were measured using impedance spectroscopy. Adhesion strengths to different protein and antibody coatings were compared. By fitting the data to an electronically equivalent circuit model, cell-related parameters (cell membrane capacitance referring to cell morphology and seal resistance referring to adhesion strength) were obtained. This electronically-assessed adhesion strength provides a novel, fast, and important index describing the interaction efficiency. Furthermore, the size of our detection transistor gates as well as their sensitivity reaches down to single cell resolution. Real-time motions of individually migrating T cells can be traced using our FET devices. The in-house fabricated FETs used in the present study are providing a novel and very efficient insight to individual cell interactions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Informatics and Microsystem Technology, University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern, Zweibrücken, Germany. Electronic address: jessica.law@fh-kl.de.
authors.forename: Jessica Ka Yan
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Law
authors.affiliation: Department of Informatics and Microsystem Technology, University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern, Zweibrücken, Germany.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Susloparova
authors.affiliation: Department of Informatics and Microsystem Technology, University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern, Zweibrücken, Germany.
authors.forename: Xuan Thang
authors.initials: XT
authors.lastname: Vu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biophysics, Saarland University, Faculty of Medicine, Homburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Informatics and Microsystem Technology, University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern, Zweibrücken, Germany.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hempel
authors.affiliation: Department of Biophysics, Saarland University, Faculty of Medicine, Homburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biophysics, Saarland University, Faculty of Medicine, Homburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hoth
authors.affiliation: Department of Informatics and Microsystem Technology, University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern, Zweibrücken, Germany.
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ingebrandt
mesh_terms: D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000502:physiology; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D058266:Dielectric Spectroscopy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D018655:Lymphocyte Count / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D014173:Transistors, Electronic
keywords: Cell adhesion; Cell migration; Field-effect transistors; Human CD8(+) T cells; Single cells