Dielectrophoresis characterization of Neuroblastoma cells

This work presents a dielectrophoresis-based method for a label-free noninvasive characterization of neuroblastoma cells. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is a frequency movement of polarized particles under the spatially nonuniform electric field. Particle can either be attracted to the highest electric field regions (positive DEP) or repulsed away from those regions (negative DEP). The DEP force experienced by the particle depends on the dielectric properties of both particle and the surrounding medium. To demonstrate the method, human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells were analyzed. The SH-SY5Y cell line has been widely used as an in vitro cell model for the study of neurodegenerative diseases. The microfluidic device for DEP characterization consists of an interdigitated ITO electrode chip (50 µm gap and 100 µm band) and a Polydimethylsiloxane (having dimensions of 15*10.63 mm² in area and 7.48 mm depth). Cell suspension (10⁶ cells/ml) are loaded into the well and electrodes are energized using a signal generator. A sinusoidal AC voltage of V_pp = 10.0 V peak-to-peak and a frequency range 100 kHz-122 MHz are applied. Consequently, by fitting the dielectrophoretic spectra of these cells to a single shell model we will obtain electrical properties of the cells.