title: Automated electrorotation shows electrokinetic separation of pancreatic cancer cells is robust to acquired chemotherapy resistance, serum starvation, and EMT.
abstract: We used automated electrorotation to measure the cytoplasmic permittivity, cytoplasmic conductivity, and specific membrane capacitance of pancreatic cancer cells under environmental perturbation to evaluate the effects of serum starvation, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, and evolution of chemotherapy resistance which may be associated with the development and dissemination of cancer. First, we compared gemcitabine-resistant BxPC3 subclones with gemcitabine-naive parental cells. Second, we serum-starved BxPC3 and PANC-1 cells and compared them to untreated counterparts. Third, we induced the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in PANC-1 cells and compared them to untreated PANC-1 cells. We also measured the electrorotation spectra of white blood cells isolated from a healthy donor. The properties from fit electrorotation spectra were used to compute dielectrophoresis (DEP) spectra and crossover frequencies. For all three experiments, the median crossover frequency for both treated and untreated pancreatic cancer cells remained significantly lower than the median crossover frequency for white blood cells. The robustness of the crossover frequency to these treatments indicates that DEP is a promising technique for enhancing capture of circulating cancer cells.
authors.affiliation: Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University , Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3859-7645
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lannin
authors.affiliation: Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University , Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Wey-Wey
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3130-2509
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University , Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Conor
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gruber
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University , Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cardle
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University , Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University , Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
authors.forename: Fredrik
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Thege
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kirby