Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2007. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Institution of Engineering and Technology for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in IET Nanobiotechnology 2 (2008): 31-38, doi:10.1049/iet-nbt:20070027.
Description:
Dielectrophoretic forces, generated by radio-frequency voltages applied to
micromachined, transparent, indium tin oxide electrodes, have been used to condense
suspensions of insulinoma cells (BETA-TC-6 and INS-1) into a 10x10 array of threedimensional
cell constructs. Some of these constructs, measuring approximately 150 μm in
diameter and 120 μm in height, and containing around 1000 cells, were of the same size and
cell density as a typical islet of Langerhans. With the dielectrophoretic force maintained,
these engineered cell constructs were able to withstand mechanical shock and fluid flow
forces. Reproducibility of the process required knowledge of cellular dielectric properties, in
terms of membrane capacitance and membrane conductance, which were obtained by
electrorotation measurements. The ability to incorporate fluorescent nanosensors, as probes
of cellular oxygen and pH levels, into these ‘pseudo-islets’ was also demonstrated. The
footprint of the 10x10 array of cell constructs was compatible with that of a 1536 microtitre
plate, and thus amenable to optical interrogation using automated plate reading equipment.
Description:
This study was financed by NIH grants NCRR RR001395 and DK06984 to P.J.S. Smith, the
Alix and Denis Robinson Fund, and by the award to R. Pethig of the Eugene and Millicent
Bell Tissue Engineering Fellowship at the MBL, Woods Hole.
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Preprint
Format:
application/pdf
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