Discrimination of Glioblastoma Cancer Stem Cells by measuring their UHF-Dielectrophoresis Crossover Frequency

This paper introduces firsts results of characterization of glioblastoma cell lines; measuring their crossover frequencies by dielectrophoresis (DEP) technics in the UHF frequency range (above 50 MHz). LN18 line cells were cultured following different conditions, in order to achieve an enrichment of cancer stem cells (CSCs). The DEP electrokinetic method is used to discriminate the CSCs from the differentiated cells. In this study, microfluidic lab-on-chip systems implemented on Bipolar-Complementary Oxide Semiconductor (BiCMOS) technology is used allowing single cell handling and analysis. Based on measurements of their own intracellular specificities, the enriched CSCs population, cultured in dedicated defined medium, have shown clear differences of DEP crossover frequency signatures compared to differentiated cells cultured in normal medium. That demonstrates the concept and validates the technique efficiency for CSC discrimination in glioblastoma pathology.