from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
The significant cost of newly developed pharmacological products is due to the toxicity examination performed on animals in pre-clinical trials. Our ultimate goal is to develop a biosensor array to determine acute cardiotoxicity. It capitalizes on the fact that heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) show beating in vitro. Based on the beating characteristics their pathophysiological status can be deducted. In addition to microscopic imaging, the method of monitoring the action and field potential of synchronously beating cardiomyocyte syncytia on multielectrode arrays (MEA) appears to be a suitable method for the investigation of the condition of cardiac cells. For this purpose, MEA on the basis of organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) has been developed. The organic polymer PEDOT:PSS was utilized to meet the strict surface biocompatibility demand for a surface in contact with media and living cardiac cells. The MEA consisted of a microplate of a 12x8 chimney – well array with transistors on the bottom for cell cultivation. For the fabrication (a screen printing method) primarily a contact field and an organic polymer was used. The device was tested in a simulation mode for the response of the drain current to the voltage pulses applied to the gate electrode up to 100 µV. The response to such gate voltage renders the device sensitive enough to detect the electrical signal of beating cardiomyocytes. Further development is directed towards higher time resolution by means of miniaturization of the transistors’ channel.
Keywords: OECT; screen printing; organic electrochemical transistor; PEDOT:PSS; microplate; multi-electrode array; cell culture© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.