Cell detection and counting through cell lysate impedance spectroscopy in microfluidic devices

Cell-based microfluidic devices have attracted interest for a wide range of applications. While optical cell counting and flow cytometry-type devices have been reported extensively, sensitive and efficient non-optical methods to detect and quantify cells attached over large surface areas within microdevices are generally lacking. We describe an electrical method for counting cells based on the measurement of changes in conductivity of the surrounding medium due to ions released from surface-immobilized cells within a microfluidic channel. Immobilized cells are lysed using a low conductivity, hypotonic media and the resulting change in impedance is measured using surface patterned electrodes to detect and quantify the number of cells. We found that the bulk solution conductance increases linearly with the number of isolated cells contributing to solution ion concentration. The method of cell lysate impedance spectroscopy is sensitive enough to detect 20 cells microL(-1), and offers a simple and efficient method for detecting and enumerating cells within microfluidic devices for many applications including measurement of CD4 cell counts in HIV patients in resource-limited settings. To our knowledge, this is the most sensitive approach using non-optical setups to enumerate immobilized cells. The microfluidic device, capable of isolating specific cell types from a complex bio-fluidic and quantifying cell number, can serve as a single use cartridge for a hand-held instrument to provide simple, fast and affordable cell counting in point-of-care settings.     

基于AuNPs/PANI-NF复合膜的电化学细胞传感器对姜黄素诱导HeLa细胞凋亡的抑制作用检测

以聚苯胺纳米纤维(PANI-NF)-纳米金(AuNPs)复合膜构建传感界面,在AuNPs/PANI-NF界面上修饰转铁蛋白(Tf),利用转铁蛋白与人宫颈癌细胞(HeLa)表面大量表达的转铁蛋白受体(TfR)之间的特异性识别作用,将细胞捕获到传感器界面,导致电化学阻抗值变化。利用电化学阻抗谱研究姜黄素对HeLa细胞的抑制作用。结果表明,随着药物浓度的增大和作用时间的延长,电化学阻抗值下降,表明姜黄素对细胞的抑制作用增强。电化学阻抗值的变化率与药物浓度和作用时间具有量效关系;电化学方法检测显示,姜黄素对HeLa细胞的抑制作用趋势与MTT法及倒置显微镜检测到的姜黄素对HeLa细胞的抑制作用结果相吻合,从而建立了一种检测药物对细胞抑制作用的新方法。该方法具有简便、灵敏度高、费用低廉等优点。     

Enhanced corrosion protection performance with MWCNT dispersed epoxy coating prepared under supercritical CO2 assistance

The corrosion protection performance of epoxy coatings could be enhanced by incorporation of nanofillers such as MWCNT. However, a homogeneous dispersion of MWCNT in epoxy polymer is still a teasing challenge. Herein, we report an environmentally benign single‐step supercritical CO₂ processing method to improve the dispersion of MWCNT in epoxy matrix in order to achieve an effective anticorrosive coating. The executed approach provides a cluster‐free uniform distribution of MWCNT in epoxy matrix as characterized with UV‐visible spectroscopy, Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, and surface analysis. The anticorrosive characteristics of MWCNT/epoxy coating were studied in NaCl as well as in photodegraded dye medium through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and potentiodynamic polarization measurements. We observed the remarkable corrosion of model metal substrate in photodegraded dye medium besides NaCl medium. In both mediums, the protection efficacy of MWCNT/epoxy coating was deduced from the stable impedance arcs in Nyquist plot and increased impedance modulus. The electrochemical impedance spectra were best fitted with equivalent circuits showing the higher values of pore resistance. Also, the MWCNT/epoxy coating exhibited a positive shift of corrosion potential and possessed a lower corrosion rate as compared with neat epoxy coating. More direct evidence of the excellent barrier properties for MWCNT/epoxy coating was visualized in SEM images. The obtained results implied that the superior dispersion of MWCNT into epoxy matrix significantly reduces the porosity of coating and inhibits the permeability of corrosive ions. We expect supercritical CO₂ assisted dispersion method can offer an efficient, cost‐effective, and industrially viable route to develop high performance protective coatings for varied commercialized applications.     

A comprehensive analysis of impedance of the electrochemical cell

A comprehensive impedance characteristics of two electrodes electrochemical cell has been presented. In this method a multisinusoidal current excitation signal is used. The change of potential of both the electrodes are all registered as a function of time. The proposed method gives the possibility of determining the impedance of both electrodes individually as well as the impedance of a two-electrode system. Additional application of short time Fourier transform of time registers allows the determination of changes in the measured impedance values over time. In order to present the possibilities of the proposed technology it was applied to a process of charging commercially available electrochemical cell NiCd. The new measurement methodology allows understanding the dynamics of processes occurring in a electrochemical cell. This is the basis for the development of effective and affordable electro-catalysts. Thanks to results obtained with Dynamic Electrochemical Impedance spectroscopy (DEIS) method it is possible to understand the mechanisms and kinetics of processes occurring in electrochemical cells while charging.     

Challenges for impedimetric affinity sensors targeting protein detection

The review provides articles discussing big challenges behind successful design of impedimetric biosensors and the way such challenges were/could be addressed for highly sensitive affinity detection of proteins. In particular, the effect of gold etching by chloride ions or by CN^? ions (released from the redox probe [Fe(CN)₆]^3-/4-), the effect of ionic strength of the assay buffer; the effect of initial interfacial properties (capacitance) and the effect of the high analyte:bioreceptor ratio on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy–based biosensing are discussed. The review provides also short discussion related to other factors, which can significantly affect operational performance of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy–based biosensing including novel conductive interfaces, small bioreceptors, strategies for improved selectivity (nonbiofouling interfaces) and sensitivity (use of nanoparticles).     

Identification of mineral waters using impedance spectroscopy and projection to latent structures

A method is proposed for the rapid identification of mineral waters by impedance spectroscopy combined with chemometric experimental data processing by projection to latent structures. Measurement conditions are optimized and performance characteristics are estimated. Possibilities of the extraction of qualitative and quantitative information on the concentrations of metal ions and anions in water, determination of the nature of mineral waters, degree of mineralization, and conformity to standard samples are shown.     

La1－xSrxNi1－yCoyO3双功能氧电极的电化学性能

采用溶胶-凝胶法制备了一系列La1－xSrxNi1－yCoyO3（x=0、0.1、0.2、0.5； y=0～1.0）型的钙钛矿催化剂，并以活性碳为载体制备双功能氧电极.对催化剂进行了XRD结构分析以及XPS表面分析.采用三电极体系测试了氧电极的稳态极化曲线和电化学交流阻抗谱并对其阴极极化和阳极极化谱图进行了分析.实验表明，对于LaNiO3化合物，B位掺杂可显著提高催化剂表面的B离子浓度, 从而提高电催化性能；而A位掺杂由于导致有序化氧空位的增多和电导的降低而造成活性下降.电极氧还原反应的极化主要由电荷转移反应和能斯特扩散过程造成.     

The ion kinetic energy spectra of some aromatic hydrocarbons

The technique of ion kinetic energy spectroscopy has been applied to the study of the aromatic hydrocarbons benzene, toluene, naphthalene, 2-methyl naphthalene, biphenyl and anthracene. The method is illustrated by a complete study of naphthalene in which transitions of metastable doubly- and singly-charged ions are listed, including reactions in which singly-charged ions are formed by collision induced charge-exchange reactions of doubly-charged ions and by the double process of charge-exchange and metastable decomposition with loss of one or two hydrogen atoms. Decompositions of doubly-charged ions into two singly-charged ions, together with the kinetic energies released in these decompositions, are also given for all the compounds studied.     

Langmuir-Blodgett composite films for the selective determination of calcium in aqueous solutions

A sensitive membrane of a new type was suggested for the determination of calcium ions in aqueous solutions. Polylayer membranes were formed by the Langmuir-Blodgett method from octadecylamine and 1,2-bis-(2-aminophenoxy)ethane-N,N,N,N-tetraacetic acid. When brought in contact with an aqueous solution of a calcium salt, the ultrathin film sorbs metal ions. The chelator then transports metal ions over the whole membrane volume, and the ions are accumulated in the form of calcium hydroxide crystallites in regions enriched in the diphilic base. The main analytic parameters were determined by piezoquartz weighing, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy. The response of sensor elements of this type was shown to be a linear function of the logarithm of the concentration of calcium ions over the concentration range 10^?8–10^?1 mol/l at the contact time between the film and the solution under study no more than 10 s. The conclusion was drawn that the membranes obtained remained highly sensitive with respect to calcium ions in 0.1 M solutions of NaCl and were selective with respect to other biologically relevant cations.     

Dielectric spectroscopy of red blood cells in sickle cell disease

Hypoxia-induced polymerization of sickle hemoglobin and the related ion diffusion across cell membrane can lead to changes in cell dielectric properties, which can potentially serve as label-free, diagnostic biomarkers for sickle cell disease. This article presents a microfluidic-based approach with on-chip gas control for the impedance spectroscopy of suspended cells within the frequency range of 40 Hz to 110 MHz. A comprehensive bioimpedance of sickle cells under both normoxia and hypoxia is achieved rapidly (within ∼7 min) and is appropriated by small sample volumes (∼2.5 μL). Analysis of the sensing modeling is performed to obtain optimum conditions for dielectric spectroscopy of sickle cell suspensions and for extraction of single cell properties from the measured impedance spectra. The results of sickle cells show that upon hypoxia treatment, cell interior permittivity and conductivity increase, while cell membrane capacitance decreases. Moreover, the relative changes in cell dielectric parameters are found to be dependent on the sickle and fetal hemoglobin levels. In contrast, the changes in normal red blood cells between the hypoxia and normoxia states are unnoticeable. The results of sickle cells may serve as a reference to design dielectrophoresis-based cell sorting and electrodeformation testing devices that require cell dielectric characteristics as input parameters. The demonstrated method for dielectric characterization of single cells from the impedance spectroscopy of cell suspensions can be potentially applied to other cell types and under varied gas conditions.     

Effects of electrode surface modification with chlorotoxin on patterning single glioma cells

A microchip patterned with arrays of single cancer cells can be an effective platform for the study of tumor biology, medical diagnostics, and drug screening. However, patterning and retaining viable single cancer cells on defined sites of the microarray can be challenging. In this study we used a tumor cell-specific peptide, chlorotoxin (CTX), to mediate glioma cell adhesion on arrays of gold microelectrodes and investigated the effects of three surface modification schemes for conjugation of CTX to the microelectrodes on single cell patterning, which include physical adsorption, covalent bonding mediated by N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS), and covalent bonding via crosslinking succinimidyl iodoacetate and Traut's (SIA-Traut) reagents. The CTX immobilization to microelectrodes was confirmed by high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Physically adsorbed CTX showed better support for cell adhesion and is more effective in confining adhered cells on the electrodes than covalently-bound CTX. Furthermore, cell adhesion and spreading on microelectrodes were quantified in real-time by impedance measurements, which revealed an impedance signal from physically adsorbed CTX electrodes four times greater than the signal from covalently-bound CTX electrodes.     

Biosorption of metals (Cu(2+), Zn(2+)) and anions (F(-), H(2)PO(4)(-)) by viable and autoclaved cells of the Gram-negative bacterium Shewanella putrefaciens

Microbial biomass represents a potentially cost-effective sorbent for water treatment applications. High sorption capacities for both cations and anions are demonstrated here for viable and autoclaved cell suspensions of the Gram-negative bacterium Shewanella putrefaciens. FTIR absorption spectra and pH-dependent zeta-potentials are similar for the viable and killed bacterial cells. Potentiometric titrations, however, reveal a two to three times higher OH(-) buffering capacity for the living cells. The Cu(2+) sorption capacity of the viable cells is also about twice that of the autoclaved cells. Sorption of fluoride and phosphate is not pH-dependent, although an initial addition of acid or base was needed to activate the anion binding sites. Uptake of fluoride is comparable for viable and killed cells. For the viable cells, the isotherms of Zn(2+) and Cu(2+) indicate the presence of at least two distinct populations of cell wall binding sites. In competitive sorption experiments, Cu(2+) completely inhibits the binding of Zn(2+) to the cells at aqueous concentrations above 150 mg L(-1). The release of dissolved organic compounds by the viable cells depends on the concentrations of metal cations or fluoride to which the cells are exposed. In particular, the presence of Cu(2+) nearly completely suppresses the release of protein-like substances, possibly reflecting Cu(2+) toxicity.     

Role of the diffuse layer of the ionic charge on the impedance spectroscopy of a cell of liquid

We investigate the role of the diffuse layer of the ionic cloud on impedance spectroscopy measurements. The analysis is performed assuming that the ions have equal mobility, the electrodes are perfectly blocking and adsorption phenomenon can be neglected. We find that the dielectric permittivity, in the limit of high frequency ω, tends to the dielectric permittivity of the pure liquid as ω^-3/2. The relationship between the detected equivalent permittivity and conductivity of the cell with the real and imaginary part of the complex dielectric constant is discussed. We show also that the presence of the ions is responsible for a distribution of relaxation times. An application to nematic liquid crystals is presented.     

Thin-layer ion-selective electrode detection of anticardiolipin antibodies in syphilis serology

A method for a serological diagnosis of syphilis is presented, in which a thin-layer ion-selective electrode is used for monitoring the complement-mediated immune lysis of antigen-sensitized phospholipid liposomes in microlitre sample volumes. The liposomes are loaded with tetrapentylammonium ions (TPA(+)) which are then released from the liposomes by the immuno reaction and are monitored by a TPA(+) ion-selective electrode. This is a direct but much amplified measure of the syphilitic antibodies to be assayed. The principles and evaluation of the method are given. The results have been compared and correlated with those of a conventional method.     

EIS multianalyte sensing with an automated SIA system—An electronic tongue employing the impedimetric signal

In this work, the simultaneous quantification of three alkaline ions (potassium, sodium and ammonium) from a single impedance spectrum is presented. For this purpose, a generic ionophore - dibenzo-18-crown-6 - was used as a recognition element, entrapped into a polymeric matrix of polypyrrole generated by electropolymerization. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and artificial neural networks (ANNs) were employed to obtain and process the data, respectively. In fact, EIS detected the ions exchanged between the medium and the sensing layer whereas ANNs, after an appropriated training process, could turn the impedance spectrum into concentrations values. A sequential injection analysis (SIA) system was employed for operation and to automatically generate the information required for the training of the ANN. Best results were obtained by using a backpropagation neural network made up by two hidden layers: the first one contained three neurons with the radbas transfer function and the second one ten neurons with the tansig transfer function. Three commercial fertilizers were tested employing the proposed methodology on account of the high complexity of their matrix. The experimental results were compared with reference methods.     

Label-free detection of telomerase activity in HeLa cells using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

A simple assay based on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) for detection of telomerase activity is developed, and it is demonstrated that the label-free EIS method is capable of detecting the telomerase activity in HeLa cells with a detection limit of 1000 HeLa cells without using any amplification technique.     

P-mSA/mCS双极膜的制备及其在一价、二价离子分离中的应用

以五氧化二磷、磷酸三乙酯和磷酸为反应剂, 制备了磷酸化海藻酸钠(P-SA), 经二茂铁离子改性后作为阳膜层(P-mSA); 用乙酰基二茂铁改性壳聚糖制备了阴膜溶胶(mCS). 将阴膜溶胶流延于阳膜层上, 制备了P-二茂铁-SA/乙酰基二茂铁-CS双极膜(P-mSA/mCS BPM). 测定了双极膜的红外光谱、接触角、电荷密度、离子交换容量与交流阻抗. IR与接触角的分析结果表明, SA经磷酸化后, 亲水性能得到了显著提高. 将P-mSA/mCS BPM应用于一价、二价离子的分离, 当压力差为0.3 MPa时, 二价离子的截留率(双极膜截留的离子百分数)为95%, 一价离子的截留率为22%左右.     

Estimation of cell surface associated protease activity and its application to lymphocytes.

A new method has been developed to estimate proteolytic activity available at the cell surface. Radioiodinated protein substrates are covalently linked to modified polystyrene-divinylbenzene beads with various diameters. These beads are presented to viable cells. Secreted enzyme activity is estimated when no contact occurs between beads and cells. Surface associated proteolytic activity is estimated by the increased rate of iodinated peptide release due to a contact between beads and cells. This method was applied to various lymphocyte preparations. In the absence of serum, mouse spleen lymphocytes produce three- to fourfold higher proteolytic activity than lymph node cells. This activity is completely inhibited by serum diluted 1:10. Since the proteolysis is so marked in the case of spleen cells, one must conclude that lymphocytes removed from the serum and treated in buffered mediums at 37 degrees C have enzymatically altered surface properties. Cell surface associated enzyme activity was measured using rat lymph node lymphocytes with less than 0.1% contamination by granulocytes. This predominantly thymus derived, T cell population had 30% increase in proteolysis due to contact between cells and solid-phase localized substrate of casein. The released enzymatic activity was inhibited by diisopropylfluorophosphate, but its effect on the surface associated enzyme activity remains questionable since it perturbs several membrane functions.     

La10(SiO4)6－x(GaO4)xO3－0.5x的合成及其导电性能

以溶胶-凝胶法合成前驱体, 在950 ℃时烧结制得La10(SiO4)6－x(GaO4)xO3－0.5x (x＝0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5和2.0)陶瓷样品, 通过TG-DTA, XRD, IR和SEM表征, 所得产品为磷灰石相. 以电化学阻抗谱研究了其导电性能, 发现决定电导率大小的因素有两种, 一是间隙氧的数量, 二是晶胞的大小, 两种因素的综合作用, 使得La10(SiO4)5(GaO4)O2.5的电导率最大, 在700 ℃时其电导率达到4.66×10－2 S•cm－1. 离子迁移数和氧分压对电导率的研究表明, 其主要的电荷载体是O2－离子.     

钴(II)离子阴极还原的研究

研究Co~(2+)离子的阴极还原,主要是由于钴的湿法冶金和电镀生产的需要,以及理论研究上的兴趣.研究表明,钴离子的阴极还原过程是复杂的,很大程度上取决于电解液的酸度.Simonova 和Rotinyan 根据pH=2.5-4的实验数据,提出了二电子还原和分步还原平行进行的钴还原机理,用以解释85—150mV 的塔费尔斜率,这实际上反映了酸度对钴还原的影响.Epelboin 和Wiart 根据阴极极化特征和阻抗分析,认为Co~(2+)离子还原时可能