Real-time monitoring of photothermal porated mammalian cells by electric impedance sensors

Abstract

We present a novel electrical impedance sensor for measuring the resealing time of porated mammalian plasma membranes. Openings were generated by high speed cavitation bubbles using laser pulsing of metallic microdisks on transparent ITO electrodes. Real-time impedance measurements show that membrane resealing time and impedance recovery takes 1 to 2 minutes after laser pulsing. Our method can also detect cells under high energy laser pulsing that experience immediate death and a one-way impedance shift.