Impedance-Based Spectroscopy System for Monitoring Cell Polarizations on MEA

We present here results obtained using Bioelectrical Impedance Spectroscopy (BIS) for cell culture monitoring on Micro-Electrode Arrays (MEA), in the case of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). A 4-Terminal configuration is used and enables to highlight not only cellular membrane polarization but also ionic charge displacement at lower frequency. The MEA had been fabricated using a microelectronic process with gold electrodes and SUB (negative photoresist) as an insulating layer. Compared to classical 2- Terminal configurations, the set-up used offers a clearer understanding of ionic and interfacial polarization which occur when biological samples are submitted to an electric field in the frequency range between 1 Hz up to several MHz. These results are a good starting point to consider afterwards experiments with myofibers and cardiomyocytes arrays for cellular state monitoring using impedance measurements.