Microfluidic system for monitoring of cardiac (H9C2) cell proliferation

The paper presents the application of electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis for investigation of cardiac cell (H9C2 – rat cardiomyoblast) proliferation after verapamil hydrochloride exposure. For this purpose, two different PDMS/glass microsystems with circular microchamber and longitudinal microchannel integrated with Pt/Al electrodes were used. The microchambers were fabricated in PDMS using photolithography and replica moulding techniques. Pt/Al electrodes were fabricated on a 4-inch glass substrate using Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD). Solution of verapamil hydrochloride was continuously introduced into the microsystems with H9C2 cell culture (a flow rate of 1 μl/min) for 72 h. The impedance spectra were recorded from 100 Hz to 1 MHz. We confirmed that impedance spectroscopy can be used for non-invasive, label-free and real-time analysis of cardiac cells proliferation based on cells dielectric properties and biological structure.