Cell growth

Imagine having the possibility to control the nature of a cell population. The surface properties are important for the cells if they should adhere and in which condition they end up in on the surface. Within the OBOE project, surface switches are used as a tool to control and study the adhesion of cells on a surface. When culturing cells on the surface switches it has been shown that different cells prefer one or the other state due to changes in protein conformation on the surface. By using the surface switch designed as an electrochemical transistor it is possible to build a dynamic gradient feature to control the cell density¹. In one specific case, MDCK cell have been seeded along the 10mm long channel of an electrochemical transistor based on PEDOT:Tosylate. The figure shows how the cells are concentrated in the centre of the transistor channel when the gate voltage is increased. 

The image shows the fluorescence photos of the cell adhesion along the electrochemical gradient as a function of different gate potentials at a constant drain-source potential. (Courtesy of Karl Svennersten, Karolinska Institutet).

 ¹ Bolin et. al. Active Control of Epithelial Cell-Density Gradients Grown Along the Channel of an Organic Electrochemical Transistor. Adv. Mater. 2009, 21, 4379-4382