A microfluidic device for simultaneous electrical and mechanical measurements on single cells

This paper presents a microfluidic device for simultaneous mechanical and electrical characterization of single cells. The device performs two types of cellular characterization (impedance spectroscopy and micropipette aspiration) on a single chip to enable cell electrical and mechanical characterization. To investigate the performance of the device design, electrical and mechanical properties of MC-3T3 osteoblast cells were measured. Based on electrical models, membrane capacitance of MC-3T3 cells was determined to be 3.39 +/- 1.23 and 2.99 +/- 0.82 pF at the aspiration pressure of 50 and 100 Pa, respectively. Cytoplasm resistance values were 110.1 +/- 37.7 k Omega (50 Pa) and 145.2 +/- 44.3 k Omega (100 Pa). Aspiration length of cells was found to be 0.813 +/- 0.351 mu m at 50 Pa and 1.771 +/- 0.623 mu m at 100 Pa. Quantified Young's modulus values were 377 +/- 189 Pa at 50 Pa and 344 +/- 156 Pa at 100 Pa. Experimental results demonstrate the device's capability for characterizing both electrical and mechanical properties of single cells. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3571530]