Acoustic sensors for monitoring neuronal adhesion in real-time

Neuronal adhesion plays a fundamental role in growth, migration, regeneration and plasticity of neurons. However, current methods for studying cellular adhesion cannot monitor the process in real time. We used quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) to measure adhesion of neuro-blastoma cells. In-vitro experiments were performed with approximately 6000 neuro-blastoma cells. The quartz crystal sandwiched between gold electrodes was placed in a flow-cell and filled with 600 mul of phosphate buffered solution (PBS). Addition of 10 W of media and cells into the above set-up caused the resonant frequency of the quartz crystal to decrease by approximately 5000 Hz over a period of 6 hours. Control experiments with no cells elicited no change in the resonant frequency of the quartz crystal. The linearity of the response of the sensor was confirmed in experiments done with different number of cells. We conclude that the acoustic sensor can be a very sensitive indicator and can potentially be used for monitoring the neuronal adhesion process in real-time.