Electrical cell-substrate impedance sensing with field-effect transistors is able to unravel cellular adhesion and detachment processes on a single cell level

Abstract

We introduce a novel technique of impedimetric sensing of cellular adhesion, which might have the potential to supplement the well-known technique of Electrical Cell-substrate Impedance Sensing (ECIS) in cell culture assays. In contrast to the already commercialized ECIS method, we are using ion-sensitive field-effect transistor (ISFET) devices. The standard gold microelectrode size in ECIS is in the range of 100–250 μm in diameter. Reason for this limitation is that when downscaling the sensing electrodes, their effective impedance governed by the metal–liquid interface impedance is becoming very large and hence the currents to be measured are becoming very small reaching the limit of standard instrumentation. This is the main reason why typical assays with ECIS are focusing on applications like cell–cell junctions in confluent cultures. Single cell resolution is barely reachable with these systems. Here we use impedance spectroscopy with ISFET devices having gate dimensions of only 16 × 2 μm², which is enabling a real single cell resolution. We introduce an electrically equivalent circuit model, explain the measured effects upon single cell detachment, and present different cellular detachment scenarios. Our approach might supplement the field of ECIS with an alternative tool opening up a route for novel cell-substrate impedance sensing assays with so far unreachable lateral resolution.