The interconnection between ageing, cancer development, and cellular growth suggests common origins despite distinct outward processes. The accumulation of cellular damage is widely acknowledged as a primary cause of ageing, potentially leading to abnormal cellular
advantages (aberrant properties of cells, enabling them to bypass normal growth controls) and cancer. Uncontrolled cellular overgrowth is implicated in age-related pathologies like atherosclerosis and inflammation. Impedance analysis of mammalian cells grown on planar film electrodes provides a label-free, non-invasive and unbiased observation of cellular properties addressing the biological response to putative senescence inducers, drugs, toxins or stressors in general. Being label-free, automation and continuous monitoring of barrier function are among the most significant advantages offered by electrical techniques in comparison to macromolecular solute permeability studies.
The label-free AtlaZ impedance recording system enables acute and chronic assessment of cellular toxicity as well as senescence in a continuous fashion from living cells under physiological temperatures and without the confounding effects of dyes that may affect cell function. The system uses 96-well plates with 96 parallel sensors offering a time resolution of down to 1 s for impedance measurements, thus allowing investigation of fast effects like GPCR related morphology changes. A frequency spectrum can be recorded ranging from 100 Hz – 100 kHz.
In general, cell adhesion and proliferation assays such as immune-cell -mediated killing of cancer cells can be successfully performed.