News & Events
News & Events
Press Release
Automated, real-time cell monitoring under flow conditions with ECIS
August 1, 2007…… Applied BioPhysics, an analytical instrument manufacturer in Troy NY, introduces a new automated method to monitor cell behavior under flow conditions.
The ECIS (Electric Cell-substrate Impedance Sensing) measurement non-invasively follows the impedance of cell-coated electrodes in real time without the use of fluorescence or radio-labeled materials. In the past, ECIS researchers were restricted to monitoring cells grown at the base of standard tissue culture wells. Now cells may be grown in special disposable flow arrays, where cells are cultured on the floor of a flow channel that is 400 micrometers high and 0.5 cm wide. Eight independent measuring electrodes, located along the 5 cm length of the channel, monitor cell behavior and its response to changing flow conditions. The flow array can be used with all ECIS models and fits neatly into the standard array holder.
To support this new flow array, Applied BioPhysics offers a complete flow module designed to interface with both existing and new ECIS 1600R and ECIS1600/800 systems. This turn-key module includes a peristaltic pump designed to operate within the high humidity of a tissue culture incubator along with medium reservoirs, flow equalizer, tubing, fittings and a start up supply of flow arrays. The system comes with new software integrated within the standard ECIS menus. This user-friendly application allows researchers to program flow conditions, both continuous and pulsed, that are automatically implemented during the course of an experiment. Flow rates may be called up that range from those used to simply perfuse cells to those that subject cells to the highest shear stresses encountered in vivo. Upon analysis, users may call up graphs of flow conditions that are correlated with ECIS time course impedance data for easy interpretation.
In addition, all ECIS flow systems can be used with the optional elevated field module for electroporation studies or cell migration measurements via automated wound-healing assays.
Coupling ECIS' established application base with flow provides biologists with the most versatile research tool for endothelial cell research.
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