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Controlled Rotation and Vibration of Patterned Cell Clusters Using Dielectrophoresis
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posted on 2015-02-17, 00:00 authored by Rebecca Soffe, Shi-Yang Tang, Sara Baratchi, Sofia Nahavandi, Mahyar Nasabi, Jonathan M. Cooper, Arnan Mitchell, Khashayar KhoshmaneshThe
localized motion of cells within a cluster is an important
feature of living organisms and has been found to play roles in cell
signaling, communication, and migration, thus affecting processes
such as proliferation, transcription, and organogenesis. Current approaches
for inducing dynamic movement into cells, however, focus predominantly
on mechanical stimulation of single cells, affect cell integrity,
and, more importantly, need a complementary mechanism to pattern cells.
In this article, we demonstrate a new strategy for the mechanical
stimulation of large cell clusters, taking advantage of dielectrophoresis.
This strategy is based on the cellular spin resonance mechanism, but
it utilizes coating agents, such as bovine serum albumin, to create
consistent rotation and vibration of individual cells. The treatment
of cells with coating agents intensifies the torque induced on the
cells while reducing the friction at the cell–cell and cell–substrate
interfaces, resulting in the consistent motion of the cells. Such
localized motion can be modulated by varying the frequency and voltage
of the applied sinusoidal AC signal and can be achieved in the absence
and presence of flow. This strategy enables the survival and functioning
of moving cells within large-scale clusters to be investigated.