EXTRACELLULAR METABOLIC PROFILING: MEASUREMENT OF SURFACE CONCENTRATIONS AND FLUXES TO DETERMINE CELLULAR KINETICS FROM 2D CULTURES USING ELECTROCHEMICAL MICROELECTRODE ARRAYS
Creators: name: Vyraghrapuri Sridharan, Siddarth
Publisher: name: Purdue University Graduate School
Year: 2020
Subjects: Electrical engineering not elsewhere classified
Biomedical engineering not elsewhere classified
Nanobiotechnology
Medical biotechnology diagnostics (incl. biosensors)

description: In 2D cell cultures uptake/release of various metabolic analytes such as glucose, lactate or metabolic by-products like hydrogen peroxide from/to the extracellular environment results in concentration gradients. The magnitude, direction, and time scales of these gradients carries information that is essential for internal cellular processes and/or for communication with neighboring cells. This PhD research work focusses on the design, fabrication and characterization of electrochemical microelectrode arrays (MEAs) optimized to be positioned in commonly used 2D cell culture setups. Importantly, by simultaneously measuring accurate concentration transients and associated gradients/uxes near the cell surface (surface concentration) the capability of the device to quantify kinetic rates and distinguish mechanisms involved in various cellular processes is demonstrated. An in-situ transient calibration technique suitable for amperometric MEAs is developed and the technique is validated by quantitatively measuring dynamic concentration profiles with varying spatial (100-800 µm) and time (s to hrs.) scales set up from an electrically controlled diffusion reaction system. With the proposed MEA design and technique three physiological applications are demonstrated. Firstly, the position able 1D MEA was employed real time to quantitatively measure the hydrogen peroxide scavenging rates from astrocyte vs glioblastoma cell cultures. With the ability to extract to dynamic surface concentration and fluxes, the cell lines were shown to have hydrogen peroxide uptake rates dependent on local surface concentrations. Moreover, the cancerous glioblastoma cells demonstrated an upregulated linear peroxide scavenging mechanism as compared to astrocytes. For the next phase, spatial scales of 1D MEA device along the size and functionalization scheme of the electrodes in the MEA was further modified to selectively sense glucose and lactate to enable extracellular metabolic profiling of cancer vs normal cell lines. Secondly, measurement of glucose concentration profiles demonstrated an increased glucose uptake rate in glioblastoma as compared to astrocytes. Additionally, sigmoidal (allosteric) vs Michaelis - Menten glucose uptake kinetics was observed in glioblastoma vs astrocytes. Moreover, the presence of a glucose sensing mechanism was observed in glioblastoma cells due to the dependence of the glucose uptake rate on initial exposed concentration rather than surface concentration. Finally, simultaneous multi-analyte (glucose and lactate) gradient measurements were performed on genetically modified mouse pancreatic cancer cell lines. While glucose uptake rate was shown to increase with increasing extracellular glucose concentration for one of the cell lines, the lactate release rate was observed to be independent of the initial extracellular glucose dose.