A real time cell-electronic sensing (RT-CES) technique for testing of cytotoxicity of nanoparticles is developed. The technique uses human lung carcinoma cell lines, A549 and SK-MES-1, and a normal Chinese hamster ovary cell line, CHO-K1, as sensing probes and continuously measure impedance change with RT-CES when the cells are exposed to the nanoparticles. To demonstrate this method, the cells were seeded to the 96-well E-plates and grew for 24 h before being treated with 0.078�160 �g mL-1 nanoparticles (the well-characterized nanoAg and nanoTiO2) and continuously monitored for three days. A single experiment generated multiple results of cytotoxic effects including dynamic cell response profiles, and dose-, particle-, cell-, and time-dependent cytotoxicity. Unique temporal IC50 histograms were obtained, allowing direct comparison of cytotoxicity among the different nanoparticles and cells. The IC50 values of nAg on all three cell lines obtained using RT-CES were in good agreement with those values determined using the neutral red uptake (NRU) assay, validating our RT-CES assay. The IC50 values of nTiO2 on all three cell lines were determined using RT-CES, whereas traditional assays could not measure these values due to severe interference from nTiO2. Furthermore, the RT-CES profiles indicated the cytostatic state, which was confirmed by the cell cycle analysis when CHO-K1 cells were exposed to 40 �g mL-1 nTiO2. The method is further applied to study the cytotoxicity of environmental air particulates. This method is simple without interference from nanoparticles with IC50 determination, offers high throughput analysis, and can generate multiple cytotoxicity data of different nanoparticles from a single experiment.

Cell-electronic sensing method for assessment of nanomaterial-induced cytotoxicity

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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