Study of single-cell electroendocytosis using Bio-MEMS technology

In this work, a micro electroendocytosis (EED) device was fabricated by MEMS technology to investigate the EED of mammalian cells. The corresponding endocytotic vesicles at the single-cell level were visualized using digital fluorescence video microscopy. The EED process under different electrical and biological parameters was studied in detail. The critical EED electric field strength for the HeLa cells using FM4-64 dye was determined to be 341.9plusmn24.2 V/cm. Beyond the critical electric field, the EED efficiency increased dramatically without significantly reducing cell viability. In addition, the EED efficiency as a function of multiple electric parameters were readily obtained based on large-scale micro EED experiments.